Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. yesterday announced that together with its two group companies and the following consortium partners have successfully concluded the world’s first sea trial of unmanned ship operation from port to port (departure port: Tsuruga Port in Fukui Prefecture, arrival port: Sakai Port in Tottori Prefecture) on 24th and 25th January, as part of the unmanned ship project MEGURI2040 (Note 1) led by The Nippon Foundation.
The following two points are major features of the consortium’s role in the MEGURI2040 unmanned ship operation projects:
(1) The consortium conducted 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.
(2) It conducted mooring tests using a drone in a move toward automated mooring operation.
Since MEGURI2040’s inception in 2020, the consortium has conducted various elemental experiments to realize autonomous ship operation. In October 2021, MOL Marine & Engineering Co., Ltd. conducted a safety verification test using its owned 3D simulator before this sea trial.
“Automated mooring” is an element of the consortium’s project. Normally, a crewmember on the ship passes the heaving line (to moor the ship in port) by throwing it to a worker on the pier. In this sea trial, the A.L.I.-developed automatic flight drone carried the line to the pier. As technology advances in the future, this is expected to become an alternative approach to mooring operations, which is a heavy burden on seafarers.
“Automated Mooring” using an Automatic Flight Drone
In order to develop highly versatile technologies, the consortium plans a sea trial of autonomous navigation using the coastal car ferry “Sunflower Shiretoko,” which has different characteristics from the coastal containership.
The consortium continually aims to reduce the workload on seafarers and ensure safe, secure marine traffic, through MEGURI2040 initiatives to realize autonomous sailing.
Source: Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.