NYK and NYK Group companies Japan Marine Science Inc. (JMS) and MTI Co., Ltd. participated in the Designing the Future of Full Autonomous Ship Project, reads an official press release.
From February 26 to March 1, the DFFAS (Designing the Future of Full Autonomous Ship) consortium conducted a trial simulating the actual operation of a fully autonomous ship at a distance of approximately 790 kilometers between Tokyo Bay and Ise Bay.
MEGURI 2040
The DFFAS project comprises 30 Japanese companies including NYK and NYK Group companies Japan Marine Science Inc., MTI Co. Ltd., and Kinkai Yusen Kaisha Ltd. The consortium is participating in the Joint Technological Development Programme for the Demonstration of Fully Autonomous Ships under the fully autonomous ship project “MEGURI 2040” administrated by the Nippon Foundation.
In the trial, the container ship Suzaku was equipped with an autonomous navigation function and connected by satellite and a ground communication line to a fleet operation center that had functions such as remote maneuvering and engine-abnormality prediction to support the operation of a fully autonomous ship from shore.
The trial was then conducted in a manner that simulated the actual operation of future fully autonomous ships, successfully completing a series of voyages that amounted to about a 790-kilometer round-trip between Tokyo Bay and Ise Bay, including offshore maneuvering, bay navigation, coastal navigation, and berthing maneuvering, using a comprehensive fully autonomous navigation system.
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Source: NYK Line
