Autonomous voyage demonstration concerned an Eidsvaag fish meals service
Kongsberg Maritime has efficiently demonstrated a spread of distant and autonomous applied sciences on a cargo vessel working off the coast of Norway. The check journey is seen as one of the crucial advanced autonomous voyages at sea to date.
The Eidsvaag Pioner is one the 2 vessels which are outfitted for remote-operated and autonomous transport demonstrations for the AUTOSHIP undertaking, which is a part of the Horizon 2020 EU analysis programme.
Owned by Eidsvaag AS, the Eidsvaag Pioner operates alongside the Norwegian coast and in fjord areas the place it carries fish feed to ocean fish-farms.
The demonstration was carried out over 13 hours and concerned the vessel finishing a voyage exterior the coast of Kristiansund on the northwest coast of Norway. The ship undocked from the port of Averøy, sailed to an ocean fish-farm and again to port once more, a journey of about 160 nautical miles in complete.
“This was an opportunity to show the world that remote and autonomous technologies can be successfully deployed on a general cargo vessel, carrying out a range of the operational aspects of a typical voyage,” mentioned Kongsberg CEO Geir Håøy. “There has been great collaboration between all partners in the AUTOSHIP project, and we have all been impressed with how the Eidsvaag Pioner performed under remote control and during autonomous sailing and docking. Today we have demonstrated a range of the key enabling technologies that will lead the way towards routine remote and autonomous operation in the years ahead.”
The autonomous voyage was initiated, managed and monitored from the shoreside Kongsberg Remote Operating Center (ROC) in Ålesund and concerned a mixture of distant and autonomous operations throughout completely different phases of the voyage. For security and regulatory causes, crew members have been on board the ship.
The first a part of the demonstration included automated undocking from the marina at Averøy. The autonomous expertise then took management to navigate and maneuver out of the harbor and additional out to open sea the place the ship navigated a route between a number of islands and prevented different sea site visitors, earlier than arriving on the offshore fish farm Ocean Farm 1, owned by Salmar.
Various maneuvers have been then carried out utilizing the vessel dynamic positioning (DP) system. The vessel subsequent returned to port, once more navigating open sea and congested seaways earlier than it routinely docked once more.
The complete operation was monitored, and sometimes managed remotely, by the shore-based captain and engineer.
During the demonstration, numerous established and new Kongsberg applied sciences have been deployed, and included auto-undocking and autodocking, situational consciousness system, autonomous navigation system, clever equipment system, connectivity & cyber safety system, distant operations middle and dynamic positioning. Cloud-based communication programs and superior simulations have additionally been concerned to check and be sure that the vessel operated safely and optimally.
AUTOSHIP PROJECT
AUTOSHIP is a four-year undertaking that has obtained funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 analysis and innovation program.
The demonstration within the North Sea was a collaboration between a big group of individuals from Kongsberg and the shipowner Eidsvaag AS, together with additionally experience from Norway’s main analysis group, SINTEF and the University of Strathclyde in Scotland.
The intention of the AUTOSHIP undertaking is to check and develop key expertise linked to completely autonomous navigation programs, clever equipment programs, self-diagnostics, prognostics and operation scheduling, in addition to communication expertise enabling a distinguished degree of cyber safety and integrating the vessels into upgraded e-infrastructure.
The second AUTOSHIP demonstration will happen on June 1 and can contain a cargo barge navigating a part of the inland waterway community in Wintam, Belgium.
