Ready For Launch: Unmanned Ships Coming With Potential And Risk

Ready For Launch: Unmanned Ships Coming With Potential And Risk

- Capt. Andrew Kinsey

Autonomous cars are already being tested on the streets and crewless ships will soon follow in the water. The world’s first autonomous cargo ship, to be christened Yara Birkeland, is being built for $25 million and is expected to start sailing in 2018, initially delivering fertilizer along a 37-mile route in southern Norway

Rolls-Royce, which is working on autonomous technology in the maritime sector, envisages a remotely operated local vessel being in operation by 2020 and a remotely operated autonomous vessel in international waters by 2025. Fully autonomous unmanned oceangoing ships could be implemented around 2035, according to the company.

In Japan, shipping companies are working with shipbuilders to develop self-piloting cargo ships, which could also be in service by 2025. In the Baltic Sea, the One Sea Ecosystem project, founded in 2016, is aiming to enable fully remote-controlled vessels in three years and to achieve autonomous commercial maritime traffic by 2025. On a smaller scale, one of the most ambitious timelines involves an effort by Automated Ships and Kongsberg Maritime to build Hronn, the first unmanned and fully automated offshore supply vessel, and have it on the water in 2018.

Clearly, the technology behind such vessels is developing rapidly, including advances that will allow ships to be controlled remotely or operate autonomously. This could enable ships to monitor their own health and the environment around them, potentially making decisions based on that information. Indeed, the potential use of automation goes well beyond the vessels themselves, stretching the entire length of the cargo movement chain.

Autonomous technology has the potential to revolutionize the movement of cargo on a scale not seen since containerization was introduced some 50 years ago.

Autonomous benefits