Danish Maritime Authority to Study Unmanned Shipping

Many believe that masterless ships may become reality within a very short period of time. Surely, the technology for unmanned ships is coming, yet it remains unknown exactly where, when and to what extent.

 

Now, the Danish Maritime Authority (DMA), together with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), is seeking the answers for these unknowns by launching a prestudy on autonomous ships.

 

DMA said the purpose of its cooperation with the DTU is, firstly, to increase the common knowledge base and to set the preliminary frames so that the development and use of unmanned ships can come about in an appropriate manner.

 

Minister for Business and Growth, Troels Lund Poulsen, said, “This is a really interesting area and, in the short term, the technology can be used to make our ships safer and more efficient. In the longer term, research in autonomous ships may become a great advantage for Blue Denmark. The global maritime sector is faced with a number of challenges that will also be considered during next week's Danish Maritime Days, and this technology could turn out to be part of the solution.”

 

The vision of masterless or autonomous ships is not new. But now the development of especially software systems with much data power as well as developments in robot technology and self-propelled cars has made masterless ships of great immediate interest – not least for Blue Denmark, which is in general characterized by a high level of technology.

 

The potential of autonomous ships is great, in terms of automation of ship operations, reduction of ship operation costs, safer and more reliable ship operation and increased energy efficiency, DMA said.

 

These are all important factors where Blue Denmark can use its strength positions within new technology, thus contributing to acquiring competitive advantages. Therefore, the Danish Maritime Authority now wants to get better knowledge in this area.

 

The planned pre-study will be carried out under the DTU project on research-based maritime consultancy which is financed by the Danish Maritime Fund.

 

The pre-study seeks a Danish definition of what the concept actually covers and to propose how to develop useful, functional projects capable of contributing to the sector both in terms of technology and economy.

 

The Danish Maritime Authority wants to carry out a wide cooperation project on the development of masterless ships, which is based on the positions of strength of Blue Denmark within shipping, safety and the environment, energy efficiency, technology development and maritime competences.

 

Several projects on autonomous ships have already been completed, such as the EU-financed MUNIN project and several projects driven by the industry in, for example, Finland. At present, Norway and England have established each their own cooperation forum with the participation of a number of authority and industry partners. Norway has just launched a test area for autonomous ships at Trondheim.