Crewless Containership Conducts the World’s First Test Run in Congested Waters Supported by The Nippon Foundation
I attended a press conference on March 1 to announce that a consortium of 30 Japanese companies, led by Japan Marine Science Inc., has successfully conducted the world’s first demonstration of an autonomous ship in waters with heavy marine traffic.
Under a project sponsored by The Nippon Foundation, the containership Suzaku piloted itself on a 790-kilometer round trip between Tokyo Bay and Ise, a coastal city in Mie Prefecture, central Japan, from February 26 to March 1.
The group has thus become the fourth to demonstrate the autonomous technologies among the five consortia participating in the Joint Technological Development Program for the Demonstration of Unmanned Ship, dubbed “MEGURI 2040.”
The 95-meter-long, 749 gross-ton Suzaku was outfitted with a comprehensive fully autonomous navigation system, including remote operations from the Fleet Operation Center (FOC) in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo.
The navigation scheme consists of three primary components: (1) an onboard navigation system that controls autonomous functions from the ship; (2) a land-based system that monitors and supports the ship from shore (FOC), and (3) an information and communications system that enables stable communication between the ship and land.
The FOC provides onshore support for crewless ships by collecting information and monitoring and analyzing the operational status of vessels, using satellite technology, onboard sensors, and artificial intelligence (AI). In the case of an emergency, the ships can be steered remotely from this base.
Tokyo Bay is known as one of the most congested sea areas in the world with about 500 ships coming and going each day, compared with roughly 320 passing through the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, and 40 through the Panama Canal, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
The consortium, led by Japan Marine Science, has brought together a total of 30 Japanese companies, comprising the country’s major shipping and shipbuilding as well as equipment manufacturing, communications, IT, insurance and other firms, for what they claim to be an “All Japan” team.
Koichi Akamine, president of Japan Marine Science, said at the press conference: “We have created fully automated navigation by designing and demonstrating completely new systems through open innovation and taking into account the perspectives of ship operators. I am confident that this successful demonstration represents a major step forward toward the practical implementation of fully automated navigation.”
I commended the consortium for its successful demonstration of a crewless ship navigating such highly congested waters alongside hundreds of freight and passenger ships, large and small, as well as fishing boats.
I told the press conference that, in my view, Japan has rarely created innovations with global impact. But I believe that the five consortia participating in the “MEGURI 2040” initiative are capable of making Japan a world leader in autonomous ship navigation technology through their innovations.
Japan is an ocean state consisting of 6,800 islands of which more than 250 are inhabited. But in 2019, the number of crew members operating freight and passenger ships in Japan came to about 28,000 with 46.5% of them aged 50 and older, resulting in serious crew shortages and increased workload per crew member.
This is why The Nippon Foundation launched “MEGURI 2040” initiative in February 2020, with an eye to putting unmanned ships into commercial service in 2025 and making half of Japan’s domestic coastal ships crewless by 2040. It has provided 7.4 billion yen (about $62.6 million) for this ambitious project.
In achieving these goals, I expect Japan will play a leading role in creating international rules governing crewless shipping in international waters.
It is my sincere hope that the four consortia, along with a fifth working on unmanned navigation technology for an amphibious sightseeing bus, will fully scrutinize the data on their demonstration voyages and make steady progress toward these goals.
