Rolls-Royce MoUs advance smart shipping agenda

With Tampere University the company will develop and test technology to support systems necessary for autonomous navigation, enabling the first generation of autonomous ships. The partners will work towards developing and validating technologies using the university’s purpose built autonomous ship simulator.

Rolls-Royce noted that Tampere University has extensive research expertise in intelligent machines and networked systems. Its research into autonomous systems looks at how huge quantities of data can be analysed, processed, and transferred, signal processing and human machine interaction. The university already has extensive experience of researching autonomous control systems in other industries, notably the mining and automotive sectors.

Meanwhile in Singapore, the partnership with TCOMS will focus on developing smart shipping technologies – such as smart sensing, digital twinning and integrated modelling -which are essential to future data-based marine solutions. Developments will be applied to technology demonstrators to show how they can be used by specific ship types.

TCOMS – a joint venture between Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research, and the National University of Singapore – is constructing a ‘deepwater ocean basin’ equipped with wave and current generation systems to simulate harsh ocean environments, including those in ultra-deep waters. Scheduled for completion in 2019, the facility will advance the development of concepts including intelligent floating platforms, autonomous systems, marine robotics and subsea systems.