Rolls-Royce and MacGregor study containership autonomy

This collaboration will harness both companies’ unique experience laying the groundwork for the development of autonomous container ships.

MacGregor is key to the research because it will be able to provide valuable insights into marine cargo operations and the technology and systems needed to make them safer and more efficient.

Pasi Lehtonen, senior vice president, strategy, business development and marketing, MacGregor said: “MacGregor wants to reshape and transform the industry to make it much more efficient, safer and more sustainable. In the segments where we operate, we see a lot of unnecessary waste in the forms of inefficiency, damage to cargo, and continuously dangerous working conditions.”

“Our aim is to minimise this waste from the value network and this collaboration on autonomy for container ships is a good example of where industry leaders work together to transform the industry.”

Asbjørn Skaro, director digital and systems, Rolls-Royce, added: “Rolls-Royce is pioneering remotely controlled and autonomous ships and believes such a remote-controlled ship will be in commercial use by the end of the decade and a common sight on the high seas by 2030.”

“For the full benefits of such a change to be realised many activities currently done today manually will need to be done autonomously. This research will help us explore how that might be achieved.”