Ladies and gentlemen: Hello, everyone!
The "Second United Nations Global Sustainable Transport Conference" just ended in Beijing last week. The interagency report issued by the conference clearly stated that "Efficiency improvements,driven by digital technologies,can contribute significantly to lowering the fuel usage,and thus the GHG footprint." When talking about "Maritime Autonomous surface Ships(MASS)", the report pointed out that "the digital revolution is fundamentally changing the shipping. Artificial intelligence, data-supported remote management and autonomous operation are all becoming realities."
So, to what extent has mass been developed, and where are Asian countries in this upcoming shipping revolution? Should we strengthen our cooperation so as to make greater contributions to this change and gain greater benefits from it? Below, I will talk about some situations and views around these issues and share them with you.
1.The origin of MASS and its progress in Europe
Mass originated in Europe earlier, In 2012, the European Union launched the "Maritime Unmanned Navigation through Intelligence in Networks" (MUNIN Project), led by MarineSoft of Germany, with the participation of SINTEF of Norway, Chalmers University of Technology of Sweden, Aptomar AS of Norway and other units and universities, with a total budget of 3.8 million EUR, the goal is to establish the technical concept of commercial unmanned ships and effectively evaluate their technical, economic, legal and regulatory feasibility.
In this project, the bulk carrier "Automat Seaways" is taken as the test ship, and several systems such as advanced sensor module, autonomous navigation system, autonomous machine and detection control system, and shore control center are proposed. In the test, the "Automat Seaways" loaded with 35,000 tons of pulp departed from Gothenburg Port, Sweden, and sailed to Cape Town Port, South Africa. After 40 minutes of sailing, it switched to autonomous navigation mode, and the pilot left the ship (three people were still left in the engine room for mechanical maintenance), and the one-way voyage lasted for one month. According to the test, the project predicts that the economy of the bulk carrier will increase significantly by installing autonomous navigation and other systems without changing the original structure of the ship. It is estimated that the ship can increase its revenue by about 7 million US dollars in the 25-year life cycle.
Since then, many large and small companies in Europe, such as Rolls-Royce Company, Wartsila Company and Kongsberg Company, have started several MASS projects independently or in cooperation with many universities and research institutions.
In 2019, the EU launched the AUTOSHIP project subordinate to Horizon 2020 (the period is from June 1, 2019 to November 30, 2022), and installed and tested autonomous navigation equipment on two ships in different operating environments to accelerate the development of a new generation of autonomous navigation ships and formulate a commercialization road map for the EU to realize autonomous navigation of ships in the next five years.
In 2016, Europe established the One Sea Autonomous Maritime Ecosystem in Finland, with the goal of establishing an independent shipping ecosystem by 2025 and paving the way for operability. Most projects in Europe have entered the stage of real ship testing and verification at sea, and some projects are planned to be commercialized. But up to now, no project has been commercialized.
2. Development of MASS in Asia
Asia is the region that started MASS research and development earlier. According to the international exchanges I participated in and the information I have mastered, shipbuilding enterprises, classification societies and maritime technology research institutions in Japan and South Korea started the research work related to MASS in 2016-2017, and then the media also reported the cases of intelligent navigation technology testing carried out by Japanese and South Korean institutions. Singapore has also made unique efforts in tracking MASS research. The research on intelligent ships in China started in 2016, but the
research and development of MASS will be later. Today, I would like to highlight the major MASS-related projects launched in these four countries.
2.1 DFFAS project in Japan
In June 2020, The Nippon Foundation set up the "Joint Technological Development Programme for the Demonstraction of Unmanned Ships" ,the DFFAS Project (Designing the Future of Autonomous Ship) is part of it. It brings together more than 40 Japanese enterprises including shipping, shipbuilding and shipbuilding equipment manufacturers. Participate in five alliances, such as "Intelligent Ferry Development", "Unmanned Sailing Ship@Sarushima Island in Yokosuka City", "Demonstration Test of Unmanned Technology Based on Domestic Container Ships and Ferries", "Future Creation of Unmanned Ships" and "Unmanned amphibious driving technology development", and carry out joint development for large ferries, container ships and passenger ships respectively. According to the plan, the Nippon Foundation will provide 3.4 billion yen (about 224 million yuan) of financial support in fiscal year 2021 (April 2021 to March 2022).
As part of the above plan, Japan announced on September 2 that the development of the shore-based support center in Mihama District of Chiba City has been completed. The integrated information management system of the center is designed by Japan Radio Co.,Ltd.(JRC).
It is expected that in February 2022, the 204TEU domestic container ship SUZAKU equipped with the "DFFAS" unmanned ship operating system will carry out a 390-kilometer round-trip demonstration test voyage from Tokyo Bay down the coast to the port in the city of Ise to prove the practicability of the system in crowded waters.
2.2 KASS Project in South Korea
In order to be in a leading position in the future market share and international standards of ships and shipping, In 2020, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries and the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of the Republic of Korea decided to invest 133.3 million US dollars to implement the Korean Autonomous Surface Ship Project (KASS), and break through the core technologies of autonomous ships such as intelligent navigation, mechanical automation, testing and verification, and specifications in five years (2020-2025), so as to realize remote control of offshore and ocean ships with and without crew members.
The KASS project has set up three control technology and standardization subprojects, namely, autonomous navigation system research and development, autonomous operation control system research and development, offshore test site and verification method, and 10 subdivided key technology subprojects, including four core technologies. One is intelligent navigation system, including integrated platform digital bridge, situational awareness system and autonomous navigation system; The second is mechanical automation system, including mechanical fault prediction and diagnosis system and integrated energy control system; The third is test site and test demonstration technology, including intelligent system and performance test demonstration and test site construction; Fourth, control technology and standards, including reliability evaluation and accident response technology, remote control and safety control technology and international standardization technology.
2.3 IntelliTug project in Singapore
The purpose of this project is to develop and field test the capability, feasibility and implementation of intelligent ships, so as to prepare Singapore Port for the arrival of MASS. Singapore PSA Marine technical team and technology group Wartsila successfully completed the first sea test of "Intelligent Tugboat" on March 13, 2020. The project platform is the 27 metrers long PSA Marine harbour tugboat PSA Polaris, equipped with equipment systems including the RS24 close-range high-resolution radar and dynamic positioning (DP) system in Wartsila. Collision avoidance algorithm is developed and a large amount of data is collected. Before the sea trial, the system simulation and digital simulation test were carried out by using the autonomous ship simulator in Wartsila. The digital twin model based on physics verifies all kinds of data collected from the sensing system and the actual performance of tugboat, which reflects the influence of physical environment in sea trial. Relevant experimental results verify the ability of the project platform to avoid various obstacles, including avoiding virtual and real moving ships.
In addition, the MASSPorts network organization, with Singapore as the main sponsor country, was established in August 2020. Representatives from flag States, coastal States and port authorities of China, Japan, South Korea, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway issued the MASSPorts initiative aimed at achieving the consistency of sea trial and operation standards of autonomous surface ships (MASS) in ports.
2.4 TINSBoSC project in China
"Key Technologies of Intelligent Navigation and Control of Ships Based on Ship-shore Cooperation" (TINSBoSC for short)is a national key R&D project started by China in 2019, and all the research and development work of the project will be completed by the end of this year. The state invested 24.6 million yuan, and 21 related institutions participated in the research. I am the project leader.
The project is divided into five topics:
Topic 1 mainly studies "ship-shore collaboration, system construction scheme and governance strategy" and answers "What is ship-shore collaboration and how to cooperate? How to divide the technical level of intelligent navigation? How to identify and control the risk of intelligent navigation? How to build MASS based on ship-shore collaboration."
Topic 2: Research on intelligent navigation system of seagoing ships, which mainly includes three contents: first, long-distance and high-precision perception and cognition of sea targets; second, long-distance driving and automatic berthing and unberthing of large seagoing ships; third, intelligent electronic chart, intelligent route optimization and autonomous collision avoidance at sea.
The third topic is the research on intelligent navigation system of river ships, which studies how to use multi-sensors to obtain and fuse relevant information for narrow and crowded inland waterways, and make intelligent decisions to avoid obstacles at close range. Relevant achievements will also be tested and applied in real ships on the Yangtze River trunk line and Changhushen Canal.
Topic 4 studies shore-based support system, MASS support system, marine multi-network and multi-mode communication equipment, network and information security risk monitoring methods and technologies, shore-based MASS monitoring platform, etc.
Topic 5 is the research on the test system of ship intelligent navigation technology, The test characteristics of ship intelligent navigation equipment, system and platform and the test requirements of real ship and virtual ship will be analyzed. Establish a test standard architecture, formulate test schemes, standards, safety measures, technical standards and operation procedures of test sites for ship remote driving, autonomous navigation and automatic berthing and unberthing, develop a test platform integrating virtual and real conditions, and establish coastal test sites and carry out tests.
The relevant achievements of the project will be integrated into three ships. Uptonow,The sea-going ship "Zhifei" will become the MASS of the largest container ship in the world, with a length of 117 meters and a width of 17 meters, which can carry 314 standard containers and has three intelligent navigation modes: remote control, autonomous navigation and automatic berthing and unberthing. The ship left the factory for trial in September 2021, and is currently undergoing equipment debugging and MASS function experimental test.
In addition, in 2019, China successively launched small primary MASS experimental test platforms such as Vessel Zhiteng and Jindouyun 0, and successfully carried out sea tests such as remote control and autonomous navigation.
I believe that the above projects will not only push MASS research in Asia to a new stage, but also make important contributions to the profound changes in world shipping.
3.Promote cooperation in MASS research and development and testing among Asian countries
First, it is suggested that the three maritime societies of China, Japan and South Korea and other institutions jointly study the possibility of taking the Asian Maritime Academic Conference as a platform, carry out exchanges and discussions on technology, information and legislation around issues of common concern, and promote and serve the research and development and commercialization of Asian MASS through the consensus reached.
Second, promote the sharing of MASS test sites and experimental facilities, and provide support for Asian countries to establish MASS experimental test standards and jointly improve experimental test technology.
Third, promote relevant institutions in Asian countries to jointly research and develop the feasibility of MASS demonstration ships, MASS demonstration routes and MASS demonstration navigation areas, and provide support for establishing cooperation mechanisms between relevant Asian countries and competent authorities. On this basis, it will create conditions for the establishment of mass international test routes in Asia and the gradual transition to commercial operation routes by unifying the relevant standards of MASS and service guarantee system.
Fourth, experts in MASS research and development, standards and legislation from all over the world are welcome to attend the first World Conference on Maritime Science and Technology organized by the Chinese Maritime Society. With the theme of the development trend of intelligent shipping technology, the grand event will be divided into main forums and special forums such as ship intelligence, shipping service intelligence, port intelligence, navigation guarantee and supervision intelligence. We hope that this conference on maritime science and technology will be a grand meeting to promote the intelligent transformation of global shipping.
Thank you all!