A TANKER off the coast of Norway completed a 13-hour voyage as an autonomous ship under AUTOSHIP, an EU-funded programme to develop new technologies for navigating large vessels, reported NBC News.
The consortium brought together entities from academy and industry, including Kongsberg Maritime, the Norwegian giant that has been conducting research in autonomous shipping.
South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industry (SHI) is also making key advancements in the technology and retrofitted one of its Samsung T-8 vessels with automated tech in 2020.
'We then successfully performed a 10 kilometre journey at Geoje Island without any interference from the staff on board,' a SHI spokesman said.
Much of this is made possible by radar and sensor technology. 'Our organisation is presently implementing our autonomous navigation technology on six large vessels and five small vessels.'
Norway's Markus Laurinen, growth and solutions director at Kongsberg Maritime, said that autonomous shipping as well as remote operating centres are possible, but there are external factors at play that will influence the acceptance of the tech, from gaining customer trust to securing regulatory clearance.
Convincing national and global maritime regulators to get on board is the biggest obstacle for autonomous or remote shipping, said Ville Vihervaara, Kongsberg Maritime's vice president of remote and autonomous solutions.
'It really depends on regulation, how the different countries and maritime regulators, how soon they will allow unmanned or uncrewed vessels at sea.'
Tests like those carried out by Kongsberg in Norway aim to sway decision makers in the company's direction. The business is nevertheless not the only player experimenting in this space.
Industry collaboration will be key to getting more such projects up and running. Last year, SHI announced it had signed an agreement with Denmark's DNV to develop autonomous functions.
Much like self-driving cars, ships can operate under different degrees of autonomy.
The International Maritime Organisation outlines four levels of autonomy, with the minimal level one still requiring seafarers on board, while level four implies full autonomy and enables the ship to operate without human intervention.
There are still many kinks to straighten out before a ship reaches level 4.
SeaNews Turkey
The consortium brought together entities from academy and industry, including Kongsberg Maritime, the Norwegian giant that has been conducting research in autonomous shipping.
South Korea's Samsung Heavy Industry (SHI) is also making key advancements in the technology and retrofitted one of its Samsung T-8 vessels with automated tech in 2020.
'We then successfully performed a 10 kilometre journey at Geoje Island without any interference from the staff on board,' a SHI spokesman said.
Much of this is made possible by radar and sensor technology. 'Our organisation is presently implementing our autonomous navigation technology on six large vessels and five small vessels.'
Norway's Markus Laurinen, growth and solutions director at Kongsberg Maritime, said that autonomous shipping as well as remote operating centres are possible, but there are external factors at play that will influence the acceptance of the tech, from gaining customer trust to securing regulatory clearance.
Convincing national and global maritime regulators to get on board is the biggest obstacle for autonomous or remote shipping, said Ville Vihervaara, Kongsberg Maritime's vice president of remote and autonomous solutions.
'It really depends on regulation, how the different countries and maritime regulators, how soon they will allow unmanned or uncrewed vessels at sea.'
Tests like those carried out by Kongsberg in Norway aim to sway decision makers in the company's direction. The business is nevertheless not the only player experimenting in this space.
Industry collaboration will be key to getting more such projects up and running. Last year, SHI announced it had signed an agreement with Denmark's DNV to develop autonomous functions.
Much like self-driving cars, ships can operate under different degrees of autonomy.
The International Maritime Organisation outlines four levels of autonomy, with the minimal level one still requiring seafarers on board, while level four implies full autonomy and enables the ship to operate without human intervention.
There are still many kinks to straighten out before a ship reaches level 4.
SeaNews Turkey
