MOL and partners conduct autonomous containership trial voyage

The coastal container ship Mikage sailed between Tsuruga Port in Fukui Prefecture and Sakai Port in Tottori Prefecture on 24 and 25 January as part of the unmanned ship project MEGURI 2040 led by The Nippon Foundation.

For autonomous navigation, the ship followed a previously formulated route using an autonomous ship operation control system that considered vessel navigation rules, external elements such as winds, tides and currents, and the handling performance of the vessel.

Information on other ships, obstacles and debris on the set route was gathered by Furuno Electric’s autonomous surrounding information integration system. This measures and displays the positions, speed, types of nearby ships, and the position of obstacles by integrating information from radar, AIS, and camera images. The ship navigated safely using an autonomous collision avoidance routing system.

Mikage was berthed and unberthed using information from Furuno Electric’s berthing/unberthing support sensor which calculates and displays the relative distances and relative angles between the pier and hull from information gathered from LiDAR, camera and satellite compass.

During mooring, a drone carried the line to the pier. As the technology advances in the future, MOL expects this procedure to become an alternative approach to mooring operations, which is a heavy burden on seafarers.

Last year, before the Mikage sea trial, MOL Marine & Engineering conducted a safety verification test using its in-house 3D simulator.

An autonomous trial of the Sunflower Shiretoko, a coastal car ferry owned by MOL Ferry, will be undertaken in February with the aim of developing versatile technologies that are suited to multiple ship types.

The Motorship reported that The Nippon Foundation, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, and Shin Nihonkai Ferry Company successfully completed a demonstration test of the world’s first fully autonomous ship navigation systems on the Soleil, a large car ferry, on 17 January.

The project includes consortium partners:

MOL: overall coordination and risk evaluation

Mitsui E&S Shipbuilding: development of automated collision avoidance routing, automated ship operation in port, automated berthing/unberthing operations

Furuno Electric: integration of information from sensors during navigation and at berthing

Imoto Lines: provision of test ship and seafarers, development of ship operation plan.

A.L.I. Technologies: development of mooring support technology (throwing a heaving line from the ship to the pier using an unmanned drone)

MOL Ferry: provision of test ship and seafarers, development of ship operation plan.

MOL Marine & Engineering: creation of simulation program of collision avoidance navigation/ berthing/unberthing for testing automated functions