By: HARIHARAN SINTRODUCTION Autonomous vessels operate without human interaction to varying degrees, from limited assistance in informing sailors' decisions to fully autonomous vessels that circumnavigate the world without crew needed. Autonomous and unmanned ships are new concepts that will challenge conventional methods for designing, testing, and approving ships and their systems. LEVELS OF AUTONOMY All actions would be taken by a human operator but there would be decision support from shore. The ship includes autonomous decision-making capability, which enables it to finish tasks without any crew. Although it sounds like this technology is still far away from the current shipping industry, nobody would deny the possibility of fully autonomous ships when the automotive industry constantly gives us breaking news of new applications. Of course, before fully autonomous ships are achieved, one possible application is that there will still be crew onboard, but only in supervisory roles, even if all the hurdles are crossed. TECHNOLOGY A ship’s ability to monitor its health, establish and communicate what is around it and make decisions based on that information is vital to the development of autonomous operations. The need is to develop a set of electronic senses that inform an electronic brain and allow the vessel to navigate safely and avoid collisions. 1)SENSOR FUSION Looking at different types of radars, high-definition visual cameras, thermal imaging, and LIDAR the project has concluded fusing multiple sensor inputs provide the best results. Finding the optimum way to combine the different sensor technologies in a range of operating and climatic conditions is the main concern. 2)CONTROL ALGORITHM Navigation and collision avoidance will be particularly important for remote and autonomous ships, allowing them to decide what action to take in the light of sensory information received. 3)COMMUNICATION AND CONNECTIVITY Such communication will need to be bidirectional, accurate, scalable and supported by multiple systems creating redundancy and minimising risk. Sufficient communication link capacity for ship sensor monitoring and remote control, when necessary, must be guaranteed. It is about exploring how to combine existing communication technologies in an optimum way for autonomous ship control. BENEFITS OF AUTONOMOUS SHIP Autonomous ships promise a range of potential benefits for the whole shipping industry using Artificial Intelligence and optimization algorithms. Let us look at two sets of figures. First, between 75% and 96% of maritime-related accidents are caused by human error, according to a study. Introducing fully autonomous and semi-autonomous vessels may help reduce the number of human-related accidents, such as employee fatigue and bad personal judgements. Another figure is 30% which means the typically crew-related expense account for 30% of the total budget. This means unmanned or lightly-manned vessels could save money for shipping carriers, and ultimately for those shipping goods, in the long run. Challenges of autonomous ships
In terms of technology, there is no essential difference between autonomous ships and cars. People have spent years improving the security of autonomous systems to 90%, but the next step from 90% to 99% could take even longer. Moreover, even though the shipping industry is becoming more digital and data-driven, the lack of open data sources compared to the automotive industry to train the neural network model is slowing the development of autonomous ships. Safety and Security Remote and autonomous ships have the potential to reduce human based errors, but at the same time may modify some existing risks as well as create new types of risk. These circumstances and possible remedies will need to be explored. The marine industry has some experience in systematic and comprehensive risk assessments.
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By: Deebak durai INTRODUCTION Usually, the implementation of new technologies in the maritime industry is at a very slow rate when compared with other industries because the maritime industry is complicated and involves huge investments and the communication between the ship and shore is the major issue. The ship owners are not ready to throw the old ships and bought new ones with advanced technology because the cost of the ship was huge and it should be run as long as possible to gain profit. CHANGE IN TREND Now the old trend was changed, and the adoption of new technologies in the maritime industry is at a fast rate. REASON FOR CHANGE IN TREND MARPOL rules become more strict to remove the carbon footprint on ships and the advancement of new technologies is at a fast rate and they are more efficient, Both these are the major reason for this change in trend NEW TECHNOLOGIES USED IN MARITIME ADVANCED MATERIALS Carbon fiber-reinforced epoxy composites are increasingly being used in the hull of boats covered with honeycomb or foam, in structural frames, keels, masts, poles, and boom, and even in carbon winch drums and shafting. The use of composites can contribute to improved performance and minimize the risk of failure in extreme sailing conditions. Racing yachts employ advanced polymer composites more extensively than any other marine structures to save weight and improve durability. Most modern ships are still built from steel today, although it's relatively heavy. That's why some larger boats are now made from strong, lightweight metals such as aluminum, while smaller ones are often made from light composites such as fiberglass or super-strong plastics. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines, especially computer systems. INTERNET OF THINGS The Internet of things describes physical objects with sensors, processing ability, software, and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communications networks. AUGMENTED REALITY A technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. INDUSTRIAL ROBOTS
Industrial robots are already used in the security, maintenance, and inspection of vessels. They can do tasks, such as packing, delivering, inspection, and even firefighting. |