Control systems for autonomous vehicles are only getting better and better, and today I'm discussing the case of a large-tonnage autonomous ship that has traveled more than 6,000 miles without any problems.
Ships have the advantage that it is much easier to move on the sea than on a road, and they have the drawback of their great weight and the great inertia they need to react. All his movements must be planned and put into action well in advance.
The 122,000-ton autonomous ship left Texas, crossed the Panama Canal, and across the Pacific to South Korea after 33 days of sailing. It is a landmark to remark.
The company that has carried out the control program is called Avikus and is a subsidiary company of the Hyundai group. The autonomous navigation program is called HiNAS 2.0 and is capable of recognizing the ship's environment (both the state of the sea, as well as other ships and the proximity geography), and with the help of Artificial Intelligence make the appropriate decisions in real time, so that the ship's course is the most appropriate and safe.
During this journey, they saved 7% of fuel compared to normal navigation and when analyzing the stored data, they saw that 100 possible risks of collision had been avoided during the entire journey.
In fact, the Avikus company is going to offer its navigation system to the market so that it can be implemented in other types of ships.
Autonomous navigation systems eliminate human error, and reduce the number of people working on a ship. And if they also reduce fuel consumption, they may pay for themselves quickly. If these premises are fulfilled, it will not take long to see how its use is extended in almost all types of boats.
The side effect is that fewer crew members will be needed to control and operate these autonomous ships. And as always, some will benefit and others will lose.
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