Autonomous ship stands the test
The Japanese liner MOL finalised its first sea trial of unmanned ship operation from port to port on 24 and 25 January 2022. Departing from Tsuruga Port in Fukui Prefecture, the vessels arrived safely in Sakai Port in the Tottori Prefecture.
The consortium carried out the sea trial with two different type of ships: a coastal containership and a coastal car ferry, aimed at using the results to develop versatile technologies by identifying similarities and differences between the two ship types.
Mooring tests were performed using a drone in a move towards automated mooring operation. In preparation, MOL Marine & Engineering conducted a safety verification test using its owned 3D simulator before the sea trial in October 2021.
For autonomous navigation, the ships followed a previously formulated route using the MES-S-developed autonomous ship operation control system. Based on the integrated information, the ship navigated the safe route formulated by the autonomous collision avoidance routing system and completed autonomous berthing and unberthing. (sh)