and autonomous solutions in shipping
FINLANDS SJÖFART J SUOMEN MERENKULKU 33
A
mous solutions and the company has established their own
Intelligent Analytics Centre in Norway and a Research &
Development Centre for Autonomous Ships in Finland.
They have been pushing the boundaries of technology,
accordingly to their slogan promise, and their idea is to
transform today’s vessels for tomorrow’s needs. I must
agree upon that the digitalisation is set to revolutionise the
marine industry, including
ship design, operations,
management and business
models. Ship Intelligence is a
part in this revolution, but
there is no fast lane for the
development towards
autonomy, and thus, the crew
is still needed onboard for
many more years to come.
Rolls-Royce demonstrated
the 3rd of December 2018 the
world’s first fully autonomous
ferry Falco (IMO 8685741) in
the Finnish archipelago.
Falco used a combination of
Rolls-Royce Ship Intelligence
technologies to successfully
navigate autonomously
during its voyage between
Parainen and Nauvo. The
return journey was conducted
under remote control. The
Rolls-Royce Autodocking
system is among the tech-nologies
that has been
successfully tested. This
feature enables the vessel to
automatically alter course
and speed when approaching
the quay and carry out
automatic docking without
human intervention.
Kongsberg has been
developing an autonomous
ship project named Yara
Birkeland. According to
Kongsberg, the vessel Yara
Birkeland will be the world’s
first fully electric and
autonomous container ship,
with zero emissions. Kongs-berg
will be responsible for
development and delivery of
all key enabling technologies
including the sensors and