\u201cThe big 20,000 teu ships are extremely efficient,\u201d he says \u2013 that is, if you keep your focus limited. \u201cUnfortunately you end up with a few ports investing hard to take these larger vessels, which pushes port costs up and, overall, the result is a less flexible transport system, more reliant on transhipment.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, according to R\u00f8dseth, if you can bring down ship sizes, making them cheaper to run and favouring direct, point-to-point calls, \u201cthen I believe you can reverse the argument\u201d and look for cost-effective routes connecting smaller facilities.<\/p>\n
What he outlines is a highly-tailored operation: the very first, Yara Birkeland<\/em> (which has just begun construction at Vard Brevik), will be more like a conveyor belt, with fully automated cargo handling and mooring on both ends of the route. As such, Yara<\/em> shouldn\u2019t be considered a \u2018ship\u2019 at all in the traditional sense \u201cbut a component in a dedicated cargo transport chain\u201d.<\/p>\n It might have been slow to start, but it\u2019s not ending with Yara<\/em>. R\u00f8dseth\u2019s colleague H\u00e5vard Nordahl, also part of the SINTEF-lead ASTAT project, explains that slow-paced electric cargo shuttles are being considered for the J\u00f8sn\u00f8ya, Trondheim and Verrabotn regions. Direct transfer of lumber from truck to ship, for example, could avoid multiple manual loading and unloading operations and even storage as one ship will always be at berth, ready to receive: \u201cDay or night, it\u2019s all the same,\u201d points out Nordahl.<\/p>\n As these first projects may be carving out the pathway for future development, it\u2019s worth noting that R\u00f8dseth says Yara\u2019s particular control strategy is not just one way, \u201cbut \u2018the\u2019 way\u201d forward.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a deceptively simple idea: while the vessel has benefited from a lot of automatic collision avoidance development and the latest sensor technology plus sophisticated robotics, it\u2019s still easier to plan ahead than solve problems on the hoof. \u201cThe operators will report to the VTS before entering the area, and that way it will avoid encountering the bigger ships,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n It requires close communication between the VTS and Yara<\/em>\u2019s coordination centre, but for the most part it relies on well-established technology. \u201cYara will always have people supervising the voyage, and that makes for a system that doesn\u2019t have to be able to respond to every potential encounter alone,\u201d he explains. Of course, he admits, it\u2019s only possible because Yara<\/em> is limited to a 6km run.<\/p>\n So, what about vessels on longer routes? It\u2019s all about evaluating each distinct arena separately, and creating specific solutions, says R\u00f8dseth. After all, in the open sea operational challenges don\u2019t tend to arise (or need resolving) quite as quickly, so in that environment, autonomous ships could potentially rely on satellite links to a coordination centre. On the other hand, for nearshore or inland vessels, a 4G or 5G network could eventually be stretched over reasonably significant distances.<\/p>\n \u201cI even think we could change the way ships, all kinds of ships, sail\u201d, says R\u00f8dseth as new developments will filter through to other, more traditional segments. Norway, supported by a very proactive coastal administration, has been developing the idea of \u2018intelligent\u2019 VTS for some time and sees the two elements, smart ships and smart fairways, working hand-in-hand, rolling out into other regions. There is potential for these interactive VTS routes \u201cto transform the way traffic is organised\u201d, he concludes.<\/p>\n CONTROL STRATEGY \u2018STEPPING STONE\u2019<\/p>\n There are other concepts, shaped by an environment that\u2019s very different to Norway\u2019s.<\/p>\n In Kiel, Germany, the authorities are aiming to decarbonise their entire transport and commuter chain, and Professor Thomas Meurer of Kiel University is leading a team that\u2019s looking at creating control-ware able to launch, berth, and direct a zero-emission ferry across the bay.<\/p>\n This won\u2019t have the luxury of wide open spaces: Kiel, says team member Max Lutz, sees particularly intense vessel movement: beside commercial ships, there are fishing, sail and motorboats \u201cand although the bigger ships have some fixed routes there\u2019s no real traffic separation scheme\u201d. Further, he points out \u201cthe ferry probably won\u2019t have right of way most of the time\u201d.<\/p>\n While Meurer explains that \u201csometime in the future we will have a complete communication network around the bay\u201d, as yet it doesn\u2019t exist, so given the nature of the traffic, the intelligence has to remain firmly onboard.<\/p>\n Of course, this entails sophisticated decision-making architecture, \u201crequiring active path planning\u201d says Meurer. The development brings together sensors, actuators and mathematical vessel models to control the response, taking into account obstacle motion and collision avoidance. Part of the trick is to keep the calculations efficient enough to be able to predict inside a few milliseconds how the other vessels \u2013 big or small \u2013 will move and take appropriate action.<\/p>\n One interesting point is that the multiple inputs necessary for autonomous operation create not just complexity, but strength. Max Lutz says: \u201cThe classic example is GPS, gyro acceleration sensors and ship model. All these sources are somewhat distorted: the acceleration sensors can drift but the GPS tells you where you are. Then if the GPS jerks a little, you know from the model that your ship can\u2019t just jump 5m to the left. So together they can make up for each other\u2019s weaknesses.\u201d But, he underlines, \u201cit has to be done in the right way\u201d, or the output could magnify, rather than diminish, the distortion.<\/p>\n While at the moment it\u2019s still firmly a university research project, next year should see tank tests, and after that, a small USV in the Kiel Canal: however, getting to a marketable product will take time, \u201cand a cross-industry partnership\u201d, says Meurer. The ferry itself will probably be some years off, he admits.<\/p>\n Despite this, the development could still provide an intermediate stepping stone toward autonomy for a broad range of shipping operations. Its inherent flexibility allows it to be tailored to balance, for example, the fastest possible service with the most energy efficient \u201ccombining multiple objectives to end up with the optimal control profile\u201d, he explains.<\/p>\n Therefore, the system could be of use to a wide range of ship operators, from fleet owners conscious of fuel and emissions, or those looking for a semi-automated point-to-point route with the benefit of obstacle avoidance. \u201cIn the end,\u201d says Meurer, \u201cWe will have an automation system, from algorithm-based software, that can be integrated into an autopilot.\u201d<\/p>\n SHIP-SHAPE<\/p>\n Autonomy requires a complete upending of design approach, underlines Kourosh Koushan of SINTEF.<\/p>\n Certainly, an autonomous vessel will, at least initially, be more expensive than a traditional ship to construct needing an extra layer of redundancy on big-ticket items like power and propulsion \u2013 which Koushan points out, will be founded on electric and clean hybrid technologies.<\/p>\n Given the costs, advantages need to be pursued: \u201cNo crew and no passengers onboard firstly means a lighter vessel, a better range for the same battery capacity, and no energy consumption for the crew… It also means we can start thinking differently, there\u2019s no one to get seasick, so we can allow different kinds of acceleration and motion.\u201d<\/p>\n Still, there are limiting factors: effects like slamming and broaching will throw off the carefully constructed algorithms: \u201cWe need to design the ship in a way that minimises any erratic phenomena,\u201d he explains. Likewise, the control systems also require stable propeller performance, avoiding pulsing, vortices and especially air ventilation \u201cwhich degrades efficiency extremely fast\u201d.<\/p>\n Even the hull itself will need more strengthening and thrusters protecting in case there\u2019s contact with floating debris that the sensors have missed. Further, as part of an integrated system \u201cwe also need to think about the interaction with an automated dock\u201d, he adds.<\/p>\n However, while ships need to be specifically tailored to the mission, his colleague Nordahl points out that reducing costs means \u201cmass production… and standardising the systems, even ship designs\u201d. The only way both demands can be satisfied is through a modular approach.<\/p>\n Interestingly, given that the business case is critical and rests on pinpointing the right solution from thousands of alternatives and moreover, there\u2019s no underpinning experience in the field, Kourosh says that AI might play a part, breaking free of human-bias constraints. Artificial intelligence could present us with \u201cradically new designs, which would not have been considered by a human\u201d, he concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Autonomous ships \u201cattack the conventional wisdom on economy of scale\u201d, says \u00d8rnulf Jan R\u00f8dseth, senior research scientist at Norway\u2019 independent research organisation, SINTEF.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorship.com\/propulsion-and-future-fuels-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}