Autonomous ship research project AAWA reveals first-year findings

Autonomous ship research project AAWA reveals first-year findings

autonomous ship

The autonomous ship research project – Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA) – which Deltamarin participates in, has unveiled its first-year findings. The objective of the AAWA project is to produce the specification and preliminary designs for the next-generation advanced ship solutions by exploring economic, social, legal, regulatory and technological factors, which need to be addressed to make autonomous ships reality.

The AAWA project brings together universities, ship designers, equipment manufacturers and classification societies. Commercial ship operators Finferries, the Finnish ferry operator, and ESL Shipping, the Finnish dry bulk cargo carrier, will provide the project with real operational experience of the technologies, advancing the development of remote and autonomous operations.

Deltamarin’s role in the AAWA project concentrates on analysing and simulating the effects of autonomous operations in the ship design. For example, the share of electrical and automation design will increase when the ship is also to be operated remotely and autonomously.

“Deltamarin wants to be involved in trendsetting projects, which aim at changing the nature of the maritime industry with smarter solutions for ship design and operations. In the AAWA project, we are not just envisioning how remote and autonomous shipping will become reality but we can also have an effect on making it real,” says Mrs Päivi Haikkola, Manager, R&D at Deltamarin.

“Autonomous shipping is one of the most significant transformations our industry is currently facing. We believe that autonomous operations will improve the safety of all mariners and the sustainability of the entire shipping,” continues Mrs Haikkola.

For more information about the AAWA project see previous Deltamarin news.

For more information see also press releases from Rolls-Royce: ‘Rolls-Royce unveils a vision of the future of remote and autonomous shipping’ and ‘AAWA project introduces the project’s first commercial ship operators’.

For more information please contact

Markus Vauhkonen Deltamarin
Markus Vauhkonen
Manager, Concept Development
Tel. +358 2 4336 437
Mobile +358 40 1684 858
markus.vauhkonen@deltamarin.com

2 Responses to Autonomous ship research project AAWA reveals first-year findings

  1. John Kontos April 29, 2017 at 21:52 #

    Is Ship self-awareness part of the project ?
    Any relevant documents /

    John Kontos

    AI Emeritus Prof

    • Markus Vauhkonen May 4, 2017 at 10:08 #

      Dear Professor Kontos,
      Thank you for your interest in the AAWA project.
      The project will consider situational awareness, which in the beginning will need a human to make the decisions. At a later stage, this will be developed further so that the vessel will be able to make its own decisions, and thereby to be at least close to self-awareness. As far as we know, no officially released relevant documents exist for the moment.

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