The European Union has provided more than 20 million euros to a pioneering project in Norway to advance autonomous ship technology.The idea of autonomous ships on the high seas has one potentially big issue.
The funding, one of the largest grants of its kind ever given in Norway, will help the project known as AUTOSHIP which seeks to demonstrate the use of two autonomous vessels in Europe’s short sea shipping and inland waterways sector.
Led by maritime technology firm KONGSBERG with Norwegian research organization SINTEF, the AUTOSHIP project will aim to test and develop key technology linked to fully autonomous navigation systems, intelligent machinery systems, self-diagnostics, prognostics and operation schedule, and communication technology. The project will also create a roadmap for commercializing autonomous shipping in the EU in the next five years.
The funding is provided by the EU research program Horizon 2020, as well as the Research Council of Norway.
In recent years, the Norwegian maritime cluster has emerged as a leader in the advancement of autonomous ship technology.
“The AUTOSHIP project gives Northern Europe with Norway a leading edge in developing the next generation of autonomous vessels. The race is underway internationally. The technology contributes to safer, more efficient and sustainable operations at sea, both in transport and aquaculture....MUCH MORE
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.
Previously:
Shipping: The Future of Inland Shipping May Be Yara's Autonomous Electric 'Birkeland'
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
"Shipbuilding Contract Signed for Unmanned, Zero-Emission Container Ship ‘Yara Birkeland’"
And many more on Professor Birkeland, Yara, autonomous ships etc. Use the search blog box if interested.
And some of the competition for ships:
Infrastructure: "Norway’s $47 Billion Coastal Highway"
.....With many of the fjords along the route being too wide or too deep for conventional infrastructure to cross, innovative new solutions are being investigated by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration.
Rogfast is the first in a series of crossings that will link the E39, connecting Stavanger and Haugesund via a 27 kilometre, 16 mile under sea tunnel.
Above: Rogfast will be the longest undersea road tunnel in the world
(image courtesy of the Norwegian Public Roads
Administration, Norconsult A/S and Baezeni Co., Ltd).
This structure will reach depths of up to 390 metres below sea level, making it the deepest as well as the longest undersea road tunnel in the world.If interested see also the links in May 2019's "Some Companies Working on Autonomous Boats".
The Rogfast project will in fact consist of two tunnels connected every 250 metres with emergency exits. Each tunnel will have a lay-by at 500 metre intervals, along with telephone and surveillance cameras along the route......MUCH MORE
