4 The Epitaxy of Intelligent Ships
In addition to the key technologies of intelligent ship design, the development of
intelligent ships also requires a lot of epitaxial conditions, including the intangible
infrastructure of supervision and regulation, and the hardware environment of
supporting (Ando 2014).
In terms of hardware environment, it includes the following aspects. Firstly, the
supporting infrastructure of intelligent ships, such as ports, wharves, waterways,
anchorage, navigation marks and communications, needs to be industrialized and
upgraded. Secondly, intelligent ships need a large number of ship supporting
equipments, including highly reliable power equipments, deck machineries, cabin
equipments, communication, navigation and intelligent systems (including all kinds
of sensors), and they need to cooperate with each other through information interaction to complete the highly complex business functions of intelligent ships, which
is also the trend of communication physical systems (CPS) of industry 4.0 (Li et al.
2012). In addition, intelligent ships can only be applied in the designated test waters
after long-term rigorous testing. Hydrological, meteorological and other environmental factors in the waters can be monitored and digitized in real time, and perfect
communication, navigation, maritime supervision and rescue measures are required.
Norway opened the world’s first unmanned ship test area in Trondheim Fjord in
October 2016, and Finland opened the test area with sufficient data connectivity in
August 2017. China also make breakthroughs in the setting up and relevant research
of unmanned ship test area.
In terms of intangible infrastructure, policies, legislations and regulations of the
shipping industry under the condition of intelligent ship technology need to be
updated. At present, IMO has formulated more than 50 effective conventions and
rules for the use and compliance of the global contracting parties, and these conventions and rules must be translated into the shipping industry regulations of the
contracting parties. These regulations are generally made with human as the main
body. When the ship intelligence enters the highly autonomous stage even the
unmanned stage, navigation of ships mainly depends on shore-based remote control
even autonomous navigation. This fundamental change will lead to the failure of
many existing conventions and rules to meet the requirements, and the resulting
revision of conventions and rules will be a complex, huge and even subversive work.
Nine IMO member states including the United States, Norway, Denmark, Japan and
the republic of Korea submitted a proposal to the maritime security council to
determine the scope of legislation in the field of unmanned ships on February
27, 2017. Furthermore, the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium and
South Korea and other countries have launched unmanned ship domestic legislative
procedures. At present, CCS has submitted the report on the research on issues
related to unmanned ships to the relevant competent authorities, suggesting that the
research on technologies and rules related to unmanned ships should be started as
soon as possible from four aspects, namely, the impact on shipping mode, laws and
regulations, operation management, norms and standards. In terms of the operation,
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709
In addition to the key technologies of intelligent ship design, the development of
intelligent ships also requires a lot of epitaxial conditions, including the intangible
infrastructure of supervision and regulation, and the hardware environment of
supporting (Ando 2014).
In terms of hardware environment, it includes the following aspects. Firstly, the
supporting infrastructure of intelligent ships, such as ports, wharves, waterways,
anchorage, navigation marks and communications, needs to be industrialized and
upgraded. Secondly, intelligent ships need a large number of ship supporting
equipments, including highly reliable power equipments, deck machineries, cabin
equipments, communication, navigation and intelligent systems (including all kinds
of sensors), and they need to cooperate with each other through information interaction to complete the highly complex business functions of intelligent ships, which
is also the trend of communication physical systems (CPS) of industry 4.0 (Li et al.
2012). In addition, intelligent ships can only be applied in the designated test waters
after long-term rigorous testing. Hydrological, meteorological and other environmental factors in the waters can be monitored and digitized in real time, and perfect
communication, navigation, maritime supervision and rescue measures are required.
Norway opened the world’s first unmanned ship test area in Trondheim Fjord in
October 2016, and Finland opened the test area with sufficient data connectivity in
August 2017. China also make breakthroughs in the setting up and relevant research
of unmanned ship test area.
In terms of intangible infrastructure, policies, legislations and regulations of the
shipping industry under the condition of intelligent ship technology need to be
updated. At present, IMO has formulated more than 50 effective conventions and
rules for the use and compliance of the global contracting parties, and these conventions and rules must be translated into the shipping industry regulations of the
contracting parties. These regulations are generally made with human as the main
body. When the ship intelligence enters the highly autonomous stage even the
unmanned stage, navigation of ships mainly depends on shore-based remote control
even autonomous navigation. This fundamental change will lead to the failure of
many existing conventions and rules to meet the requirements, and the resulting
revision of conventions and rules will be a complex, huge and even subversive work.
Nine IMO member states including the United States, Norway, Denmark, Japan and
the republic of Korea submitted a proposal to the maritime security council to
determine the scope of legislation in the field of unmanned ships on February
27, 2017. Furthermore, the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium and
South Korea and other countries have launched unmanned ship domestic legislative
procedures. At present, CCS has submitted the report on the research on issues
related to unmanned ships to the relevant competent authorities, suggesting that the
research on technologies and rules related to unmanned ships should be started as
soon as possible from four aspects, namely, the impact on shipping mode, laws and
regulations, operation management, norms and standards. In terms of the operation,
Intelligent Ships
709