However, by the end of the year, the number of crew on board will be reduced from five to two and then, if all goes well, in two more years the vessel’s bridge will be removed and there won’t be any crew on board at all.
Until then, Captain Svend Ødegård is at the helm of the 80m-long ship. “We are taking big steps towards autonomy,” he tells the BBC. “There’s a lot of installed technology there, that is not on existing ships.”
Eventually the Yara Birkeland will navigate aided by sensors, including radar and cameras, which will feed data to an artificial intelligence, which will detect and classify waterborne obstacles.
“We have situational awareness – cameras on the side, front and stern of the ship,” the captain explains. “It can decide whether to change its path because something is in the way.”
The captain’s job will move onto dry-land, to a remote operation centre more than 80km (50 miles) away, where several ships could potentially be monitored at the same time. If necessary, humans will be able to intervene by sending commands to alter the speed and course.
Owned by fertiliser giant Yara, the Yara Birkeland has been sailing twice weekly for last several months from the firm’s enormous plant near Porsgrunn to the port of Brevik, carrying up to 100 containers and collecting data along the 13km (8 miles) route.
“Vessels which operate along short, regular and fixed routes offer good opportunities to introduce autonomous ship technologies,” says Sinikka Hartonen, Secretary General of One Sea Association, an alliance of maritime companies and experts working in autonomy.
The project’s technology provider, Kongsberg is working on another two battery-powered autonomous barges in the Oslo Fjord, with Norwegian grocery wholesaler Asko, and a fourth, small container ship, near Ålesund.
By Adrienne Murray. Technology of Business reporter
Source: BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64875319. 29 March 2023.
You may also like
The Fully Autonomous Ship Project is entering its second phase: “Testing”
The Fully Autonomous Ship Project is entering its second phase: “Testing”. We are now entering the second phase of MEGURI2040, a project led by the Nippon Foundation, aimed at creating a fully autonomous ship with a clear objective: the implementation of all autonomous navigation technologies developed during phase 1 by 2025. The program will focus on achieving this main goal [...]
24/09/2023
Container shipping market back in 2019
Container shipping market back in 2019. Alan Murphy, CEO and founder of Copenhagen supply chain analyst Sea Intelligence, has warned of widespread service cancellations on major trade lanes across the Pacific Ocean and between Asia and Europe between now and the end of the year. _____________________________________ Murphy was speaking week at the Saudi Maritime Congress held in Damman this week. [...]
24/09/2023
DP World eyes logistics and supply chain expansion in SE Asia
DP World eyes logistics and supply chain expansion in SE Asia. DP World is looking to expand its logistics and supply chain capabilities in the Southeast Asian region building on its existing terminal business. “As we seek to grow our legacy ports & terminals business, we are also working to significantly enhance our capabilities within the fuller spectrum of [...]
24/09/2023