A Consideration on Efforts toward the Practical Application of Autonomous Ships

Abstract

Autonomous ships are ships that can navigate automatically by commands or autonomous functions sent from a remote location. In recent years, the importance of "automated driving at sea " has begun to be emphasized for coastal vessels, where labor shortages are a concern. Autonomous navigation technology, which is "autonomous navigation at sea ", has great potential, and technological development is progressing toward the realization of autonomous ships. This research aims to reduce the labor burden of seafarers and the accompanying reduction in operating costs. In addition, we investigated a manpower-saving marine transportation system that uses automatic navigation technology to improve the conventional marine transportation that operates the same number of personnel in "　difficult to navigate " waters such as routes and near ports.