World’s First “Mobile Fleet Operation Center” Completed to Provide Remote Navigational Support for Unmanned Ships from Land (1)
Published on March 11, 2025
Under the “MEGURI2040” fully autonomous ship program financed and administered by The Nippon Foundation, the world’s first “Mobile Fleet Operation Center” has been completed to provide remote navigational support for multiple autonomous ships from shore.
This operation center is housed in a cargo trailer that can be moved anywhere, meaning that in the event of a disaster or other emergencies, it can be transported to a safe location and continue to provide remote navigational support to multiple ships.
With a view to promoting widespread use of the mobile facility in the future, the systems necessary for remote navigational support are designed to fit within the 7-meter-long container.
The fully autonomous navigation system consists of: (1) “ships” that perform autonomous functions; (2) “land-based fleet operation support,” permanent and mobile, that assists ships from land; and (3) “communications via satellites” that handle communication lines and information management and control.
Speaking at a press conference on February 5, Executive Director Mitsuyuki Unno of the foundationn said that in a series of demonstration tests starting around the summer of 2025, the mobile remote center and a permanent operation center, set up in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan, in July 2024, will offer remote navigational support for four autonomous ships simultaneously.
This forms an important part of the second phase in the MEGURI2040 project, launched by the foundation in February 2020. It has now been joined by a total of 53 Japanese companies, comprising the country’s leading shipping and shipbuilding companies, as well as equipment manufacturers, communications, IT, insurance and other firms, to form what they claim to be an “All Japan” team.
“What the second stage aims to achieve is equivalent to so-called “Level 4 autonomous vehicles,” which can conduct driving tasks without human intervention within a limited area, Mr. Unno said. (A Level 5 vehicle can drive itself anywhere under all conditions.)
Formally called the Joint Technological Development Program for the Demonstration of Unmanned Ship, the initiative ultimately aims to make half of Japan’s domestic coastal shipping fleet crewless by 2040.
(To be continued)
