Overview
Maritime transport within the EU faces challenges such as significant increases in transport volumes, growing environmental requirements and a shortage of seafarers in the future. The concept of the autonomous ship brings along the potential to overcome these challenges. It allows for more efficient and competitive ship operation and increases in the environmental performance of vessels. Furthermore the shore based approach offers “seafaring” the possibility to become more socially sustainable by reducing the time seafarers spend away from their families.
MUNIN aims to develop an autonomous ship concept, which is described according to the Waterborne TP Agenda by combination of automated decision systems with remote control via a shore based station. The vision of MUNIN is to show the update possibilities of todays fleet to autonomous vessel. MUNINs results will also provide efficiency, safety and sustainability advantages for existing vessels in short term, without necessitating the use of autonomous ships. This includes e.g. environmental optimization, new maintenance and operational concepts as well as improved bridge applications. Furthermore autonomous ship-models could be an improvement for education purpose in ship simulators.
The specific tasks of the MUNIN project are to:
- Develop the technology concept needed to implement the autonomous and unmanned ship.
- Develop the critical integration mechanisms, including the ICT architecture and the cooperative procedural specifications, which ensure that the technology works seamlessly enabling safe and efficient implementation of autonomy.
- Verify and validate the concept through tests runs in a range of scenarios and critical situations.
- Document and show how this technology, together with new and more centralized operational principles gives direct benefits for non-autonomous ships, e.g., in reduced off-hire due to fewer unexpected technical problems etc.
- Document how legislation and commercial contracts need to be changed to allow for autonomous and unmanned ships.
- Provide an in-depth economic, safety and legal assessment showing how the MUNIN results will impact European shipping competitiveness and safety.
Further MUNIN’s results will provide efficiency, safety and sustainability advantages for existing vessels in short term, without necessitating the use of autonomous ships. This includes e.g. environmental optimization, new maintenance and operational concepts as well as improved bridge applications.
Funding
Results
Crewless cargo carriers
An EU team is developing an idea for unmanned shipping. The proposal involves designs for various modular on-board systems for ship control, sensing and communication, plus onshore stations.
For environmental reasons, oceanic cargo ships are travelling more slowly, thus increasing the ship population; simultaneously, numbers of available mariners are declining. The solution may lie in partially autonomous cargo vessels, which also offer commercial and environmental advantages.
The EU-funded http://www.unmanned-ship.org (MUNIN) (Maritime unmanned navigation through intelligence in networks) project aims to develop a technical concept for such ships and assess its feasibility. The project concept addresses the vision paper prepared by Waterborne TP, a European consortium, which specified the various necessary modular control, communication and decision-support systems. MUNIN involves eight partners and runs between September 2012 and August 2015.
First reporting period results consisted mainly of technically defining the subsystems, including both on-board and onshore modules. The list includes an advanced sensor module, autonomous navigation system, autonomous engine and monitoring control system, and a shore control centre. Together, the units will provide all the information needed to control a ship during the deep-sea part of its voyage. The systems are not intended for use in harbours or congested shipping lanes.
In addition, the consortium has defined the various technologies needed to assist on-shore staff. The shore control centre operator monitors the status of several autonomous ships. Additionally, an engineer assists the operator and devises maintenance plans for the vessels. A control centre situation room team has the capacity to take control of a single ship, using a replica bridge and remote manoeuvring support system.
Researchers laid the groundwork for a prototype implementation phase scheduled to begin during the second reporting period.
The MUNIN project has defined the technical systems needed to implement the Waterborne TP concept for autonomous shipping. The development should yield cost savings, while avoiding the problems of mariners being at sea for long periods.