According to related reports, in the past, rubber boats were usually used for scientific research on plateau lakes, but unexpected storms were often encountered, endangering the safety of scientific research personnel, and the use of unmanned scientific research boats can avoid these dangers. Moreover, the unmanned ship can also realize the automation of data collection, and the measurement data can be obtained during the journey.
In addition to scientific research, in recent years, intelligent ships represented by unmanned boats and boats have appeared frequently in the fields of environmental monitoring and regional cruising, and related research results at home and abroad have emerged one after another. Then, what is the development status of unmanned ships, how will they go in the future and what changes will they bring ... The reporter interviewed Mr. Cai, head of the intelligent ship working group of China Classification Society.
Speed up the pace of intelligence
As early as the 1960s, the remote-controlled unmanned boat fleet was widely used in the military field. In recent years, with the rapid development of automatic control, Internet of Things, big data and other technologies, environmental awareness technology and communication navigation technology related to ships have also been widely used, providing broad technical feasibility for the development of intelligent ships/unmanned ships.
Looking around the world, Denmark has launched an unmanned boat research and development project, Norway has opened an unmanned boat test area, South Korea has developed a general technology platform for unmanned boats, and the Netherlands is developing and utilizing "floating self-driving unmanned boats" to carry people and goods. ...
At the level of laws and regulations, relevant research work has also been put on the agenda. In February this year, nine IMO member countries, including the United States, Norway and Denmark, submitted a plan to determine the legislative scope of unmanned ships to the Maritime Safety Committee. In addition, the United States, Britain and other countries have initiated domestic legislative procedures for unmanned ships.
At home, the strategic plans such as "internet plus", "Made in China 2025" and "Intelligent Transportation" which are being comprehensively promoted in China clearly put forward the development direction and work requirements of "improving the intelligent level of ships, cultivating strategic emerging industries such as intelligent ships, and improving the digital, networked and intelligent level of water transportation".
The strategic path is clear, and the China shipbuilding industry has accelerated the pace of digitalization and intelligence of ships.
According to Cai, in 20 15 and 20 16, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized and carried out the scientific research projects of "Top Planning of Intelligent Ships" and "Intelligent Ships 1.0" respectively. The exhibition ship covers three main ship types: super-large container ship, super-large ore ship and super-large crude oil ship. At present, the project has entered the design and construction stage;
In 20 15, CCS issued the world's first intelligent ship specification, which put forward specific requirements for the functions that intelligent ships should have;
The CSSC Dawning Project 38800DWT intelligent bulk carrier is scheduled to be delivered at the end of this year. This ship is the first intelligent demonstration ship in China, which can realize engine room decision-making and ship health management functions.
In March this year, HNA Technology Group and China Classification Society, together with six domestic and foreign units, initiated the establishment of the "unmanned cargo ship development alliance" to strive to deliver the first unmanned cargo ship in 20021year; In April, Dalian Yintai Group launched the national defense and civil technology intelligent ship integration project, and plans to build an unmanned concept cargo ship in the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.
Potential advantages of economy and security
Cai believes that the pursuit of economy and safety is an important reason for the popularity of unmanned ship technology.
At present, the shipbuilding industry is still in the stage of structural adjustment and upgrading and resolving overcapacity. Shipowners have a strong desire for "intelligent, green, safe and efficient" ship types. Unmanned ships will meet the growing demand for cost reduction in the market and bring all-round upgrading of infrastructure, management level and industrial cooperation mode to the industry.
On the one hand, most of the equipment on board, such as lifesaving, fire fighting, pollution prevention and living facilities, serve the crew on board to a great extent. Without crew, these equipments are not needed, which will reduce the weight and energy consumption of the ship, thus reducing the construction and operation costs of the ship and improving the cargo carrying capacity of the ship. Rolls-Royce believes that these factors, together with the reduction of weight and air resistance, will bring about fuel savings of 65,438+02% to 65,438+05%.
In addition, from a technical point of view, integrating real-time dynamic data such as ships and ports is conducive to optimizing logistics and supply chain and improving transportation efficiency.
On the other hand, the main causes of marine accidents are human factors such as mistakes in decision-making and operation, and improper emergency handling. The report issued by Allianz Insurance 20 12 in Germany once pointed out that 75%-96% of maritime accidents are the result of human error. In the design scheme of unmanned ship, the expert decision-making system and remote control system are used to make the ship run mainly on the shore with good working conditions, thus fundamentally reducing the influence of human factors on the navigation safety of the ship.
Have a subversive influence
Mikael Makinen, president of rolls royce Shipping Group, once said, "Unmanned ships are the future of the shipping industry. Smart ships are as subversive as smart phones and will completely change the mode of ship design and operation. "
Cai also holds the same view. "Not only that, unmanned ships will have a huge impact on existing shipping modes, laws and regulations, operation management and standards."
From the perspective of shipping mode, first of all, unmanned ships will contribute to the rise of emerging shipping business, such as integrated ship-shore communication, cargo supervision and control, online freight service and so on. The data collection of remote and autonomous driving operations will create new business opportunities and markets; Secondly, the unmanned ship carries out remote control operation or instruction transmission through information transmission, and the focus of risk prevention and control of the ship will shift to network security; From the supporting links, the development of unmanned ship-related technologies will promote the information gathering of ports and maritime affairs, mainly in the high integration of logistics information, maritime supervision and intelligent route information; In addition, because there is no crew, the traditional ship liability and insurance rules will also change.
It can be predicted that with the rise of unmanned ships, some existing maritime laws and regulations also need to be adjusted to adapt to the new format. Cai believes that this mainly involves several aspects: First, ship safety laws and regulations, including the requirements of SOLAS for structure, life-saving equipment, manning of fire boats, signals and alarms, the forward-looking navigation strategy in COLREG, the interaction of lighting signals and some provisions related to crew design, and the need to consider the lighting and alarms of conventional ships and unmanned ships. Second, the provisions on crew management, including the definition of crew and related requirements, safe manning and other requirements in the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW), the International Labour Convention and the Minimum Safe Manning Rules for Ships; Thirdly, the laws and regulations on maritime rights and responsibilities involve the captain's responsibility, salvage at sea, legal subject and insurance liability.
In terms of operation and management, the daily maintenance of unmanned ships without crew no longer depends on the operation and experience of the crew on board, so it puts forward higher requirements for the reliability of the onboard system, and at the same time, it is necessary to build an equipment health management system, relying on the reliability of the system and the remote management and operation and maintenance guarantee on the shore. In view of the characteristics of highly integrated unmanned ship-related systems and cooperation with shore-based networking, the supervision mode of flag state, port state, customs, border defense and other institutions on unmanned ship boarding will change from boarding law enforcement to remote law enforcement that automatically obtains information; Ports and waterways need to increase infrastructure to adapt to the operation of unmanned ships and adjust management mechanisms.
In terms of standards and specifications, according to the characteristics of unmanned ships, it is necessary to study basic technical standards, safety standards, management standards, inspection and evaluation standards and so on.
Need all-round support
Standing at the smart tuyere, the development prospect of unmanned ships can be expected. At the same time, as a systematic project of the shipping industry, the challenges it faces are also cross-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary. Cai believes that in the face of these problems, the competent departments, shipping companies, classification societies, scientific research, design, ports and other departments need to work together.
He suggested that research on shipping management and ship operation mode should be carried out to speed up the upgrading of shipping enterprises to adapt to the operation and management of unmanned ships. While paying attention to the traditional ship safety problems, this paper studies the new risks brought by ship-shore integration to ship safety. In addition, it is necessary to focus on the new business forms triggered by unmanned ships under the economic background.
Regarding the extensive and multi-level maritime laws and regulations system involved in unmanned ships, Cai suggested that the applicability of existing maritime laws and regulations should be studied based on the principle of combining the two attitudes of "encouraging the enthusiasm of scientific and technological innovation" and "ensuring safety and order", and according to the characteristics of international and domestic shipping, the operational supervision policies for unmanned ships should be formulated in a targeted manner.
Combined with the characteristics of high information integration and real-time sharing of unmanned ships, Cai suggested that the operation of intelligent ships/unmanned ships should be integrated into the large logistics cycle to improve logistics efficiency. Specifically, the technology of providing key information such as space reservation and cargo status to logistics providers in real time is developed to ensure the real-time and reliability of transaction and cargo flow information, and the freight credit system based on unmanned ship operation mode is established.
In the experimental stage of unmanned ship research and development, Cai believes that it is extremely necessary to establish an unmanned ship test area in a suitable navigation area. He suggested that the establishment of the experimental area should comprehensively consider the water conditions such as meteorology, hydrological conditions, signal intensity and navigation density, build a simulation environment for ship operation supervision and management, and focus on selecting routes with strong demonstration effects.
It still needs joint efforts to promote maturity.
At the 20 17 World Transportation Conference held recently, the participating experts almost invariably put the chips of "future transportation" on "unmanned driving". For the shipping industry, "artificial intelligence+ship" is also highly anticipated.
Compared with manned ships, the advantages of unmanned ships are obvious. First, the ship space can be used more effectively; Second, it can make more effective use of crew skills; Third, fuel can be used more effectively. These are very important for unmanned ships to gain long-term competitive advantage. From the perspective of global logistics chain, real-time remote monitoring of global ships can integrate ships more closely into logistics or supply chain, so that global enterprises can maximize the efficiency of the entire fleet and realize savings and income increase.
However, it is by no means a technology or a means of transportation that can conquer the world. At present, it is no problem for artificial intelligence to drive a cargo ship out to sea, but it is not enough to control container ships facing more complicated situations at sea. It is also a long process to remove the "three mountains" of information transmission safety, power plant stability and remote control reliability and introduce maritime laws and regulations to support unmanned ships.
In the long run, the shipping industry is undergoing fundamental changes, and more changes are still in the pipeline. The emergence of unmanned ships is only a matter of time, but it needs the coordination and joint efforts of all parties to mature and put into commercial use on a large scale. As some experts have said, only when artificial intelligence develops to the level of "strong intelligence" comparable to the human brain can human beings completely let go of vehicles and move towards artificial intelligence.
Extended reading
The two giants completed the first remote operation of merchant ships in the world.
It was originally expected that unmanned long-range merchant ships would be put into use before 2020, but now it seems that this time may be earlier.
Recently, Svitzer * *, a tugboat company owned by rolls royce and Maersk Group, announced that it has successfully completed the remote operation of the world's first merchant ship in Copenhagen Port.
It is reported that the tugboat "Switzer Hermóer", which participated in the remote operation test, is 28 meters long and was built by Turkish Samar Shipyard in 20 16. It was designed by Robert Allen and equipped with the dynamic positioning system of Rolls-Royce. The remote control system is connected with the dynamic positioning system, which is controlled by the captain's remote control operation base at the headquarters of Switzer Company and has been operated safely for many times. The ship moored beside the dock, first left the dock, then turned around 360 degrees, headed for the headquarters of Switzer, and then entered the dock again.
The ship's power system adopts two MTU 16V4000 M63 diesel engines, each with a power of 2000 kW/1800 rpm. The ship is also equipped with various sensors, which can be reliably and safely transmitted to the shore-based remote operation center by combining various data with advanced software, so that the captain can fully grasp the tugboat and its surrounding environment and facilitate the captain to remotely operate different system components.
Mikael Makinen, president of Rolls-Royce shipping business who participated in the demonstration process, said, "The success of the world's first ship remote operation experiment is of historical significance. For many years, we have been firmly convinced and predicted that unmanned long-range merchant ships will be put into operation before 2020. With the unique combination of Svitzer's rich operational experience and our expertise, we achieved our goal ahead of schedule. "
Kristian Brauner, chief technology officer of Svitzer Company, pointed out, "As the largest tugboat company in the world, we have been actively involved in unmanned boat projects and developed innovative methods to improve the safety and efficiency of tugboat operations, benefiting customers and crew. Customer feedback, operating costs, environmental impact and ship efficiency will continue to be our driving forces. "
It is understood that rolls royce Company and Switzer Company have signed an agreement to continue the remote operation and unmanned test of the ship.
KevinDaffey, president of rolls royce Ocean Engineering Technology, revealed that rolls royce and Svitzer will conduct experiments for another 18 months and carry out some unmanned tugboat operations. "We have a lot of completely autonomous tugboat ideas, and we can even work without a cabin. This time,' Hermóer' only showed some core technologies. "
It is understood that during the exhibition, the tugboat is still equipped with a captain and crew to ensure the safety of the tugboat when the system fails.