An artist’s impression of
what a ship’s bridge might
look like in the future.
FEATURE TRANSPORT
A
ccording to Rolls-Royce future
shipping involves intelligent ships
and unmanned and remote-
controlled transportation systems
monitored by interactive smart screens,
voice recognition systems, holograms and
surveillance drones.
Smart shipping developments have
come about through a number of marine
trends, including fuel diversity, increasingly
stringent environmental regulations and
technological developments, as well as an
over-arching universal push to reduce costs
and improve safety.
h rough a three-pronged Ship Intelligence
plan Rolls-Royce is looking to tap into the
power of big data to transform customers
operations by further developing remote and
autonomous technologies so it can monitor
and control the vessels of the future.
Rolls-Royce already uses existing remote
access technology in its power and propulsion
equipment but has started pushing the
boundaries of ship technologies. It is
looking at future solutions that will reduce
the need for human-machine interaction
by automating selected tasks and processes
while keeping humans at the centre of critical
decision making and on-board expertise.
According to Rolls-Royce remote and
autonomous operations general manager
Iiro Lindborg, in this ever-changing world
these unmanned and remote-controlled
systems will soon become common features
of human life so it is important to i rstly
understand the human factors involved.
Lindborg said the industry would soon
see wide use of electric propulsion and
fuels such as marine gas oil, heavy fuel oil
and methanol, and lean ship designs where
swappable containerised systems were added
to, or removed from, vessels according to the
vessel’s mission.
Also, innovative hull forms that remove
the need for water ballast and treatment
systems will be introduced, and vessels
could also be tailored to suit the demands of
specii c routes.
Safety on-board will also be improved
with automatic look out systems with object
detection features, which will provide
decision support for the crew.
h e i rst unmanned commercial ships
are expected to be locally operated vessels,
given that single l ag states will be able to
permit their operation before international
regulations are in place, and these ships could
beonthewaterwithinthreetofouryears.Rolls-Royce is working to design and
construct a project demonstrator before the
end of the decade, with coni dence high that
these ef orts in the long term will pave the
way to fully autonomous ships.
h e company is working on a future
shore control centre concept with Finnish
researchers from the VTT Technical
Research Centre and the Tampere Unit
for Computer Human Interaction at the
University of Tampere, which emphasises the
user experience of the human operators.
h e research noted in preliminary i ndings
that by focusing on the operators’ point of
view it was possible to introduce meaningful,
pleasurable and engaging roles for the ships’
shore control centre professionals.
h e researchers will also look at lessons
learnt from other industries that are using
remote operations through the InnoLeap
approach, an initiative developed in-
house with VTT based on trend and user
studies, co-innovation, scenario stories and
visualisations that presents academic studies
in a graphic format.
Lindborg said the research was aiming to
broaden understanding of the human factors
involved in monitoring and operating ships
remotely, to identify ways crews ashoreRolls-Royce future
Rolls-Royce has seen the shipping future and it may not involve a captain.
By Karma Barndon
http://www.miningmonthly.com December 2017 AMM 37