During the international ‘RoboBoat’ competition that occurred during last week, the crowd was able to witness Israeli innovation in a team of students that designed and built an autonomous boat, able to navigate and sail in an accurate trajectory via computing, sensors such as cameras and the LIDAR radar, and plenty of algorithmics. These students designed and developed an innovative boat with electrical ignition and new controls, with navigation capabilities and identification of targets via radar and smart cameras, which allows for advanced image processing and deep learning.

The international ‘RoboBoat’ competition, brought by the RoboNation Organization, allows the leading universities in the world to compete in the development of autonomous boats, and just last week the SAIL-IL team that constructed the first Israeli autonomous boat, flew to the yearly global competition held in Sarasota, Florida, U.S.A, and won third place in the competition. The team, that proudly represented the Tel Aviv University (TAU) and the nation of Israel, was up against the leading universities from all around the world, including Cornell, MIT, etc. – Reports TAU.com.

“During the project we were faced with many technological challenges connected to the autonomy world, such as computer vision and processing of a photograph in real-time, the melding of data from a large number of sensors, planning a smart and efficient route, and of course making the system completely autonomous, including decision making in real-time and control” details Noam Blutner, a member of the SAIL-IL Team. “The whole operation has to be carried out in a maritime environment that has unique attributes, such as water reflection that impacts a photo. The world of autonomy has been advancing in the last few years, but with a bigger emphasis on cars. The application of the vast information about maritime environments was a considerable and fascinating challenge. Additionally, we had to deal with the mechanical challenges of designing and constructing a boat that fits the criteria of maneuvering and stability, sealing all the components in the boat and protecting the sensors, as well as creating a whole electricity supply system. There were many different challenges that required deep self-learning from us in numerous subjects that we were not knowledgeable of beforehand.  In the end, we had to combine all these parts into one whole and functioning system”.

Source: https://i-hls.com/archives/114714

Lloyd’s Register has given Approval in Principle to ACUA Ocean, a UK-based developer of marine autonomous surface ships, for its hydrogen system, control engineering system, and electrical power distribution systems on the world’s first zero-emission hydrogen-powered MASS.

In March 2022, Factory Acceptance Testing was conducted on the prototype systems as part of the Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition, which was financed by the Department for Transport and delivered in cooperation with Innovate UK.

ACUA has been working under a Connected Places Catapult Transport Research Innovation Grant (TRIG) to automate the onboard hydrogen systems, giving both improved safety and decision-making processes.

John Kecsmar, a prominent naval architect and SWATH designer for Ad Hoc Marine Designs Ltd., has designed ACUA Ocean’s new H-USV. The vessel is propelled by 6,000 liters of liquid hydrogen, resulting in greater power, dependability, and endurance, and fulfilling the UK Maritime Strategy’s aim to zero-emission propulsion by 2025.

The vessel has a high level of redundancy at sea and was built to operate in open ocean conditions in collaboration with Lloyd’s Register and industry regulators. The ACUA Ocean vessel provides a robust platform for the deployment of sensors and payloads for a variety of ocean monitoring and protection applications.

Commenting on the announcement, ACUA CEO Neil Tinmouth said, “Working with Lloyd’s Register and Ad Hoc Marine Designs has enabled us to ensure the vessel aligns with regulatory standards and operational requirements. As the adoption of net-zero propulsion systems accelerates so we see a clear strategic advantage as the first to market.”

Source: https://energynews.biz/british-startup-unveils-first-hydrogen-powered-autonomous-ship/

The Global Autonomous Ships Market is showing positive signs of growth. With the current COVID-19 pandemic scenario, new business opportunities are sprouting in the market. Organizations must explore new markets to expand their business globally and locally. For getting a deeper understanding of the emerging trends, the Global Autonomous Ships Market report showcases various factors that drive the economy worldwide. Moreover, the companies will get to know the market landscape for the next decade 2020-2025.

The recent report on Autonomous Ships market predicts the behaviour of this business space for the forecast timeframe of 20XX-20XX. It proffers the production and consumption attributes with respect to the growth drivers as well as opportunities that will ensure profitability in coming years. Further, the study highlights the current challenges faced by the industry along with counterapproaches for the same.

Moreover, the research literature includes insights regarding the regional markets and boasts of Porter’s five forces analysis to extrapolate information on top competitors operating across the various geographies. In addition, it contains case studies on the worldwide impact of COVID-19 pandemic and suggest business strategies that can help companies ensure strong gains in the forthcoming years.

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Main highlights from the Autonomous Ships market report TOC:

• Based on regional outlook, the Autonomous Ships market is divided into Americas, APAC, Europe, Middle East & Africa.
• Thorough analysis of revenue generated, production capacity and growth rate for each geography is contained in the report.
• The product terrain of the Autonomous Ships market in categorized into Maritime Autonomous Ships and Small Autonomous Ships.
• Application spectrum of Autonomous Ships market is fragmented into
• Predictions for the sales figures, pricing, revenue and growth rate of each application and product segment during forecast period are enumerated.
• Considering the production aspect, the report delivers insights pertaining the manufacturing framework of the product offerings.
• Based on consumption facet, the document leverages latest industry-validated data to determine the figures for consumption value and volume.
• Major companies that define competitive landscape of the Autonomous Ships market includes Kongsberg Rolls-Royce ASV DARPA NYK Line Mitsui O.S.K. Lines HNA Group.
• Basic information of each participant alongside their respective product inventory with detailed specifications and top applications are given.
• Financial aspects like pricing model, manufacturing costs, and gross margins of each company are also mentioned.

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• Comprehensive analysis of the upstream raw materials & equipment suppliers, downstream buyers, and distribution channels to provide a holistic view of the industry supply chain are provided in the study.
• Investment feasibility study with respect to several important attributes like project name, budget, product solutions, and project schedules is highlighted in the research document.

This Autonomous Ships Market Research/Analysis Report Contains Answers to your following Questions

• Which Manufacturing Technology is used for Autonomous Ships ? What Developments Are Going on in That Technology? Which Trends Are Causing These Developments?
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Source: https://www.newsorigins.com/autonomous-ships-market-30975/

Just under 402 years ago, in August of 1620, the Mayflower set sail from Southampton, England, bound for America. The 100-foot-long-long, triple-masted wooden vessel with canvas sails took more than two months to cross the Atlantic. It carried 102 passengers, had a max speed of three knots an hour (that’s about 6 kilometers or 3.7 miles an hour) and required a crew of 30 to operate.

Earlier this month, another Mayflower crossed the Atlantic, but it couldn’t have been more different from its namesake in almost every way. The one similarity was that, well, it was also a boat.

The differences? The new Mayflower—logically dubbed the Mayflower 400—is a 50-foot-long trimaran (that’s a boat that has one main hull with a smaller hull attached on either side), can go up to 10 knots or 18.5 kilometers an hour, is powered by electric motors that run on solar energy (with diesel as a backup if needed), and required a crew of… zero.

That’s because the ship was navigated by an on-board AI. Like a self-driving car, the ship was tricked out with multiple cameras (6 of them) and sensors (45 of them) to feed the AI information about its surroundings and help it make wise navigation decisions, such as re-routing around spots with bad weather. There’s also onboard radar and GPS, as well as altitude and water-depth detectors.

The ship and its voyage were a collaboration between IBM and a marine research non-profit called ProMare. Engineers trained the Mayflower 400’s “AI Captain” on petabytes of data; according to an IBM overview about the ship, its decisions are based on if/then rules and machine learning models for pattern recognition, but also go beyond these standards. The algorithm “learns from the outcomes of its decisions, makes predictions about the future, manages risks, and refines its knowledge through experience.” It’s also able to integrate far more inputs in real time than a human is capable of.

The training included teaching the algorithm to identify objects in its path like cargo ships, fishing vessels, or shipping containers floating in the water.

For all its training and preparation, though, the Mayflower 400 ended up falling a bit short of its goal.

It set sail from Plymouth, England on April 29 and was meant to take three weeks to arrive in Washington, DC—but a mechanical issue ended up derailing it to the Canadian port of Halifax. Details weren’t specified, but it may have been something similar to what happened during the ship’s first attempted voyage in 2021, when a metal component on the backup generator fractured, and solar power alone wasn’t enough for the ship to complete its journey.

The Mayflower 400’s engineers will doubtless press on, though, and are likely already planning another voyage for the high-tech autonomous ship. Despite the snafus, it’s pretty amazing to contemplate how far technology has come since the original Mayflower crossed the Atlantic. Makes you wonder what a similar voyage will look like 400 years from now; from hydrogen-powered airships to civilian submarines to faster, sleeker AI-powered solar vessels, it seems anything is possible.

Two decades after the devastating Erika and Prestige accidents, the European maritime safety framework has become one of the most robust in the world, according to the European Maritime Safety Report (EMSAFE). Yet, emerging technologies and digitalisation could soon also pose challenges.

EMSAFE is the first ever comprehensive overview of maritime safety in the European Union.

EU Transport Commissioner, Adina Vălean says the report is a ‘testimony to how the EU’s efforts to ensure maritime safety have been effective in preventing accidents and ensuring a high level of harmonised safety rules across the Union. At the same time, a single maritime accident can have catastrophic consequences for human life and the marine environment, so continuous vigilance and improvement remain essential.’

Port State Control and EMSA

One of the key pillars of the EU safety framework is port state control, which results in over 14,000 vessel checks each year by inspectors in EU ports, complemented by legislative initiatives like the specific EU survey regime for sRoPax and high-speed craft, and the obligation for member states to report and monitor accidents centrally for analysis and development of preventive actions.

The EMSAFE report, published by the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) also highlights the assistance that the Agency provides to the European Commission to check the implementation of EU legislation. In this regard, EMSA has carried out more than 300 visits to member states on behalf of the Commission over the past two decades, as well as more than 300 inspections of EU recognised organisations, to which member states are increasingly delegating tasks linked to their flag state responsibilities.

In addition, more than seventy inspections of maritime administrations, education, and training institutes in third countries were carried out in the same period, to assist the Commission in assessing compliance with the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW).

SafeSeaNet

In 2020 alone, more than 680,000 calls to EU ports were registered. The exchange of safety information between member states in areas like dangerous cargo transported, vessel positioning data, and the registration of passengers, is therefore vital.

Consequently, EMSA will continue to develop and improve SafeSeaNet, the EU-wide maritime data exchange, to offer facilitation services, simplify the fulfilment of reporting obligations, and support new and revised EU legislation. These developments consolidate the role of SafeSeaNet as the primary platform for maritime safety information in the EU.

Ageing fleet

EMSAFE is released at a time in which the EU member state-flagged fleet is experiencing slower growth than that of world fleet (3.4 per cent growth over the past five years as compared to seven per cent growth for the world fleet). Although the average age of EU member state-flagged vessels is broadly comparable to that of the world fleet, some ship categories are ageing, including passenger vessels, which have an average age of 28 years.

New technologies can increase risk

According to the report, maritime safety will continue to pose challenges in the short and medium term, not only in managing the current fleet, but also in the areas of digitalisation, emerging technologies, and sustainability.

The sector’s efforts to reach emission targets as part of the European Green Deal are also linked to maritime safety, especially given that the use of new fuels (hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, and biofuels) and power technologies (batteries and fuel cells) need to be underpinned by adequate safety standards.

In addition, the number of alternatively fuelled vehicles, including electric cars, increased by 29 per cent between 2019 and 2021 in the EU, meaning that both passenger and cargo ships need to prepare for the safety risks of transporting more of these vehicles.

The report underlines that although autonomous ships offer new opportunities for industry, they also bring challenges in the regulatory and technical fields, including the need to develop a legal framework, standards, surveys, manoeuvres at sea and in port, and the qualifications of those on board, among others.

Maersk Tankers has announced plans to expand its digital team from seven to 23 employees as it tries to keep pace with increasing demand for technology-powered services in the shipping market.

The company’s digital strategy is focused on developing systems and processes to enhance vessel efficiency and cut carbon emissions, including support for charterers in selecting the best suitable vessel for each voyage based on its speed and fuel consumption, as well as calculating the best voyage route while taking future positioning into consideration.

While this has typically been a time-intensive process involving manual calculations, Maersk Tankers’ digital team is working on systems to manage these activities in a matter of seconds, presenting charterers with a range of options to decide from based on their preferences.

“With demand for digitised shipping increasing, we are adding capacity to keep up with the pace. We’re also reorchestrating our team, moving from a generalist digital department to one of expertise in high-demand areas,” said Bjørn Ørving, Head of Digital at Maersk Tankers.

“We’re working towards providing the best possible software that can ensure our brilliant colleagues are able to focus on providing even better services and solutions.”

The digital team plans to hire 16 new employees this year, largely data scientists, data engineers, and back- and front-end developers. Seven of these positions will be reallocated from an agency to the inhouse team at Maersk Tankers.

A third of the technical developers hired will be new graduates or juniors, with the company taking co-responsibility for their further development in the field of digital technology. The team will also be working closely with universities and sharing data with them for research, Maersk Tankers says.