Mitsui O.S.K. Lines: Unmanned container ship

2022: Container ship start-up

At the end of January 2022, in Japan, the world's first unmanned container ship made the transition between the two ports. The pilot project was implemented by the logistics giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, a group of Japanese companies led by the Nippon Foundation investment fund.

Tests of the container ship were carried out by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines using a seven-year coastal container ship operated by Imoto Lines. The ship with a displacement of 1.87 thousand tons, the length of which is 95 meters, and the carrying capacity of 4.6 thousand tons, was equipped with a number of systems. The trial flight took place from January 24 to 25, 2022, the ship left the port of Tsuruga in the Sea of ​ ​ Japan and arrived at the port of Sakai, passing about 161 nautical miles.

Unmanned container ship begins to sail in Japan

For autonomous navigation, the ship followed a previously developed route using a system developed by Mitsui E&S Shipbuilding, which monitored the test. Among the elements that were taken into account in the system were:

• accurate location information,
• various external elements (wind, tides and currents),
• information on the configuration of the vessel (maneuverability, ability to accelerate and slow down).

Furuno Electric has developed an autonomous system that, through the integration of radar data, camera images and AIS data, provides detailed information about other ships and obstacles near the ship.

According to representatives of Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, one of the most difficult parts of swimming was autonomous mooring and despair, requiring especially delicate handling. Furuno Electric developed a system of auxiliary sensors that, using lidar, cameras and a satellite compass, calculated and visually displayed the relative distances and angles between the pier and the hull of the ship. Usually, the vessel has crew members who provide visual confirmation during docking, and also transfer the ship line to the movers for tying the vessel. For this test A.L.I. Technologies has developed mooring support technology that used drones to deliver the line to the pier.

Project Mitsui O.S.K. Lines involves conducting sea tests with two different types of ships - a container ship and a ferry, in order to identify similarities and differences in their navigation and increase the versatility of technology. This is also the first test in which mooring operations are integrated using drones. The introduction of unmanned navigation technologies, according to the Nippon Foundation, should reduce the number of incidents at sea and help solve the growing problem of the shortage of sailors.^[1]

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