Cooperative agreement to demonstrate remote and autonomous ferry operations

A key focus of the collaboration will be to consider a new research project, called Safer Vessel with Autonomous Navigation (SVAN).

“This new collaboration agreement could take safer, cleaner shipping to the next level. Rolls-Royce will develop solutions to enhance the safety and efficiency of marine operations in the ferry sector, which will be demonstrated in the test platform provided by Finferries,” said Karno Tenovuo, Senior Vice President, Rolls-Royce Ship Intelligence.

Cooperation

“We are excited to further deepen our collaboration with Rolls-Royce. Finferries wants to actively take part in ventures where cutting-edge technology is utilised to increase the safety in maritime operations. We believe this cooperation will benefit both our customers and the environment as the focus is on increasing reliability of marine traffic,” added Mats Rosin, Finferries’ CEO.

The new research project SVAN will see both parties looking to implement the findings from the 2017 Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications (AAWA) research project, which both Rolls-Royce and Finferries were involved in.

Funded by Business Finland, AAWA brought together a number of stakeholders from a myriad of shipping industry sectors to research the commercial and technical viability of a next generation of advanced ship solutions.

This new cooperation agreement was announced at the Turku Fair and Congress Center, during the NaviGate 2018 exposition.