Tokyo Bay successfully realized unmanned shipping of container ships for the first time: long-distance operation on land was also carried out about 300 kilometers away.

On March 1, the Japanese consortium announced that the unmanned container ship had been proved successful on the 790 km round-trip route between Tokyo Port and Jin Matsuzaka Port (Mitsubishi Prefecture). It is reported that independent navigation in the "crowded (crowded) waters" between most ships such as Tokyo Bay is the first attempt in the world.

The empirical experiment is part of the unmanned ship project "MEGURI 2040" promoted by the Japanese consortium, which is carried out by the "DFFAS (Designing The Future Of Full Autonomous Ship) consortium" of 30 domestic companies of the Japan Shipping Group with Japanese marine science as the center. In addition to shipping and shipping related companies, it also brings together the technology and know-how of various enterprises, such as NTT Group, Meteorological Information Company, Marine Insurance and so on.

From left, Hiroichi Chifeng, president of Japanese marine science, executive director of Japanese consortium Hiroshi Kaiano, president Sasakawa Yohei

Hiding 400-500 ships unmanned.

The number of ships sailing in Tokyo Bay rises to about 500 a day, 1.5 times the size of the Singapore Strait of Malacca and more than 10 times that of the Panama Canal. A container ship with a total length of 95 meters and a total tonnage of 749 tons is used in the experiment. Most of the large ships have automatic steering devices along the predetermined route, but the unmanned ship also has the function of avoiding the autonomous avoidance and automatic departure of other ships appearing in the upward course. On the afternoon of February 26th, the Expo successfully landed at the port of Tokyo. It takes about 20 hours to sail across Tokyo Bay to the port of Jinmatsuzaka and arrive at the port of Tokyo again on the morning of March 1.

Although there are also scenes of temporarily switching to manual operation, the operation rate of the unmanned navigation system reached 97.4% on the last trip and 99.7% on the return journey. Sang Yuan Wu, director of the DFFAS consortium, said: "the number of trips alone has reached 107. Since multiple ships can be avoided by changing the route at one time, it can be estimated that the cumulative number has reached 400,500. "he felt his reaction.

The unmanned shipping system ships the whole set of servers and monitoring equipment into containers on land and installs them on dark ships. If this method is introduced, the existing ship can be upgraded to an unmanned ship without large-scale transformation.

A container ship sailing in Tokyo Bay. In the white container set at the stern, provide photos such as the server that manages the self-driving system: Nippon consortium

A squint steering chamber. Through the switch under the handle, you can switch from the land support center to remote control.

A land support center that can operate ships remotely

A major feature of this empirical experiment is the establishment of a "land support center" (Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture). "like the control tower of an aircraft, it is an indispensable facility in the practical application of unmanned ships" (Director Sangyuan), on the basis of collecting meteorological, walrus data and traffic, monitoring navigation and cabin conditions, it is also possible to operate the ship remotely in case of emergency. A communication system connecting sea and land has also been established, thus becoming a comprehensive demonstration of unmanned shipping.

The land support center of Muzhang Techno Garden located near the JR waterfront Muzhang Station.

It not only monitors the status of engines and electrical system equipment, but also has the function of abnormal prediction.

The driver's seat for remote ship operation. In order to bring dreams to children, this is a recent design.

Remote ship manoeuvring from land support centres was also tested on 28 February. In the waters of Ise Bay, which is about 300 kilometers away in a straight line, instructions for route change and speed adjustment have been sent through satellite lines.

Director Sangyuan said: "the land support center can monitor and support thousands of ships." In the future, with the development of cloud technology, there may be days when large ships will be operated remotely at home. "

Director Sanghara, who adjusts the speed of the ship. When operating a ship remotely, the LED light around the driver's seat turns red

Switch to the infrared camera during night control, so the visibility is higher than the human eye.

With the goal of practicality in 2025, legal rectification is a subject.

MEGURI 2040, which is committed to solving social problems such as aging seafarers, labor shortage and shipwrecks with many human errors, strives to realize the practical use of unmanned ships by 2025. Director Sang Yuan focuses on the future, "while devoting himself to solving the clear problems in this empirical experiment, we should also strive to rectify the practical environment."

Compared with technological development, the improvement of maritime law and marine insurance related to unmanned shipping ships seems to take time. However, he said that the rules on boarding quota may be relaxed first. In the current seafarer method, if the ship exceeds 700t, such as Sazaku, even if there is an automatic steering device, two or more persons must always be placed on the bridge, and if replaced for eight hours, at least six persons are required. By introducing an unmanned navigation system that can avoid navigation on its own, reducing the minimum quota to one person, another seafarer can be ensured. From the point of view of solving the shortage of seafarers, the establishment of technology is also urgent.

The utility model relates to a container for storing an unmanned shipping system installed at the stern. There is a monitor room and a server room inside. This is a method that can increase the number of unmanned aerial vehicles in a short time.

On March 14, MEGURI 2040 will also carry out self-driving certification on both land and water charter vessels. A total of six empirical experiments of the five consortia will be completed. Hiroyuki Kono, executive director of the Japanese consortium, said: "in the future, we will collect the strengths of each consortium and further speed up the development." With its achievements, legal rectification will also promote the IMO (International Maritime Organization) and so on. " Unmanned ships are expected to show their skills in the water capital at the 2025 Osaka World Expo.

The unmanned voyage in Tokyo Bay was successful and returned to the port smoothly.

Photo: com editorial office banner photo: remote ship operation of land support center