Tug owners are innovators in autonomy and automation

Tugs are being built with unmanned engineroom and machinery spaces, and onboard automation for alerts, controls and equipment management. And autonomous navigation and remote tugboat control has been tested, as witnessed by International Tug & Salvage when Svitzer remotely commanded Svitzer Hermod in Copenhagen, in 2018, and when Damen-built tug Nellie Bly was sailed unmanned around Denmark in 2021.

Tugboats and workboats have also been remotely controlled from operations centres in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, UK and USA, demonstrating what is possible from the available technology, which is also being applied to offshore, naval, defence, inland transport and other maritime missions.

With their manoeuvrability, tugboats and pilot launches are excellent for autonomous navigation and remote command demonstrations, but due to the type of daily work they achieve, practical and commercial applications have been limited. 

Svitzer, and other tug owners, considered using remote command for tugs sailing between ports or to shipyards for maintenance and class surveys, to rest crews during transits, but decided the investment was not worthwhile. Much of a harbour tug’s life is working in one port with masters manoeuvring vessels and docking ships.

However, one owner has found it commercially viable. Ultratug is using MAHI’s Remote Operation solution on 2010-built, 32-m tug Enco to reduce manning in the wheelhouse during long coastal voyages to service remote ports. This uses onboard computers, sensors and software for semi-autonomous navigation with monitoring and command from an onshore operations centre in Vina Del Mar, Chile. It is likely other owners will reconsider the technology for limited tugboat operations in the future. 

Additionally, autonomous navigation has evolved to become an assistance technology, providing information, intelligence and insight for greater situational awareness and semi-autonomous transits, going far beyond autopilots. 

Automation is also being applied outside of the vessel control room, in the form of remotely operated winches for crewless decks, and will soon be used for safer seafarer access. Svitzer has developed an automated hydraulic gangway concept enabling crew to walk ashore and handle lines, and masters to moor tugs in a safer way. The Copenhagen-based owner is considering automation to improve safety and efficiency for crews in their daily operations.

Kotug International is also using unmanned technology, having previously deployed autonomous navigation on a training tug, and is now using drones to transfer lines between tugs and ships, and Wilson Son is trialling drones for deliveries to vessels in ports. More owners are likely to follow these examples. 

Tugboats and their owners are at the forefront of technology innovation, development, testing and adoption. The latest developments will be presented and celebrated during Riviera’s TUGTECHNOLOGY ’25 and the ITS Awards 2025, which will be held in Antwerp, Belgium 20-21 May 2025, showing the world how innovative this sector can truly become.