Rolls-Royce to lead autonomous ship research project

Rolls-Royce is to lead a new €6.6 million project that could pave the way for autonomous ships. The Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative will produce the specification and preliminary designs for the next generation of advanced ship solutions.

The project is funded by Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation). It will bring together universities, ship designers, equipment manufacturers, and classification societies to explore the economic, social, legal, regulatory and technological factors which need to be addressed to make autonomous ships a reality.

The wide-ranging project will look at previous research before exploring the business case for autonomous applications and the safety and security implications of designing and operating remotely-operated ships. The legal and regulatory implications, and sourcing a supplier network able to deliver commercially applicable products in the short to medium term will also be considered.

The technological work stream, which will be led by Rolls-Royce, will explore the implications of remote control and autonomy of ships for propulsion, deck machinery, and automation and control, using, where possible, established technology for rapid commercialisation.

The project will run until the end of 2017.