From Yara, April 28:
Two years ago, Yara made history with the Christening of Yara Birkeland, the world’s first fully electric, autonomous, and zero-emission container ship. On the second anniversary of its Christening, find out how the ship has fared since then, its autonomous functions, the challenges embarking on an ambitious project of this nature, and what the future holds in store....
Autonomous functions
Yara Birkeland completed its first-fully autonomous voyage, under human supervision, from Yara Porsgrunn to a container terminal in Brevik in March 2023. However, owing to regulatory issues, the ship currently operates with a crew of three onboard who supervise and monitor the ship for safety reasons.The crew size will be reduced to two shortly, when the ship’s electrician will be moved to join other former crew members at the recently opened Horten Remote Operations Center where the ship will be monitored from.
Knut Midtsian, Interface Manager for Yara Birkeland explains that the ship’s autonomous Auto-Docking and Auto-Crossing capabilities are now operational. “The ship can autonomously leave the quay at Yara’s Herøya facility, sail to Brevik, and dock at the unloading quay while the navigator onboard is overlooking the voyage. Similarly on the return trip to Herøya, the ship autonomously sails to and docks at its dedicated Birkeland quay” he says. Yara Birkeland is not completely autonomous yet, mooring of the ship is still done manually, with tests are underway on the ship’s robotic mooring arms.
Tests will soon start on the Yara Birkeland’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) situational awareness system. The AI system controls how the ship navigates, based on decisions it makes on its surroundings, other ships, obstacles, or weather changes....
....MUCH MORE
Previously:
Shipping: He May Not Have Received His Nobel Prizes But The World's First Fully Electric Autonomous Container Ship Will Be Called the Birkeland
"Norway Takes Lead in Race to Build Autonomous Cargo Ships"
Norwegian Government to Chip In $17 Million to Develop the First Electric Autonomous Cargo Ship
Autonomous Electric Ships: Norway's "Yara Birkeland tipped to launch late next year"
Shipping: Autonomous Ships Continues To Be A Huge Growth Opportunity
Yara's autonomous electric container ship project, the Birkeland is on hiatus due to covid-19 with 2021 the new target date.
A Look At Yara's Autonomous Electric Container Ship
"Norwegian Autonomous Ship Project Secures Major Funding"
The idea of autonomous ships on the high seas has one potentially big issue.
Should there be a problem with either propulsion or navigation, the cost of getting a crew on location to do repairs could be quite high.
That is one of the reasons initial trials will be attempted in littoral and coastal zones....
And more.
And one of many on Kristian Birkeland:
"New Research on Northern Lights Will Improve Satellite Navigation Accuracy"
Ha! Birkeland smiles.
He should have been awarded a couple Nobel prizes.*....
