Future of ships

Kongsberg is one of the leaders in the field for Marine Electronics and equipment for the future autonomous ships and participate in several of the project groups presently working on this development.

The navigation part is the easy bit, incl. collision avoidance:

But Kongsberg is also heavily involved in the development of systems for the unmanned engine rooms of the future: https://www.km.kongsberg.com/ks/web/nokbg0240.nsf/AllWeb/87907B681C53A7BAC1257316003BC367?OpenDocument

And total concept for an all electric autonomous ferry for use in Norway: https://www.km.kongsberg.com/ks/web/nokbg0238.nsf/AllWeb/C436FADB888BFD55C1258192003B8148?OpenDocument

Training of personnel to operate both manned and unmanned vessels is part of their portfolio: https://www.km.kongsberg.com/ks/web/nokbg0237.nsf/AllWeb/E0B8E9F95BA63B2EC12577F300321396?OpenDocument

For those who wants to take part in the Maritime industry, either afloat or ashore; now is the time to join in the development of the future of ships and shipping, or al least to prepare for it.

In the little time I have been able to spend on ships I have experienced a start of a fire that did not continue due to an electrical breaker actuation, an injector failure due to the failure of the high pressure injector tip, a failure of a generator fuel line resulting in the spraying of fuel on to a hot generator. The Titanic suffered the failure of contaminated rivets in its construction. With unforeseeable equipment, structure and equipment failures how can one possibly contend that a system such as a ship can possibly navigate an ocean voyage on its own? A system as large and complex as an ocean going vessel can not possibly be expected to navigate an ocean without failures. Unless a vessel is manned by very intelligent robot/androids more often than not ships will suffer a multitude of failures. Anyone who is attempting to think otherwise is living in a fantasy world, devoid of reality.

Consider how far cell phones have come in the past 10 years. This could easily happen in our lifetime. (30-50 more years)

Hate to admit it but the rich folk that want this to happen, will invest and see to it. As for the pee-on’s like us, we’ll end up jobless
 unless we decide to keep up by educating ourselves in the industry of autonomy. Unfortunately for some, having computers onboard ships to manage the vessel have become difficult due to computer illiteracy.

I guess this is a reality we’ll have to accept and the maritime industry is moving in this direction. The way I see it, we have 1 of 3 options. Take the bull by the horns, jump out of the ring, or be trampled over.

So you think that the people at Lloyds, DNV-GL, Rolls-Royce, NYK and others are some sort of idiots living in a dream world devoid of reality?? Maybe it it you and others that is living on a delusion and in an alternative reality, believing that development can be stopped.

Here is an article that may be a little more realistic: http://www.oilpubs.com/oso/article.asp?v1=20728

I sometimes wonder who you work for. Your Goebbels-like enthusiasm for the promotion of autonomous ships goes beyond interest or admiration as strikes me as a deliberate effort to encourage a certain public perception.

This isn’t a dig against you, just an observation that your persistence is fanatical.

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If it’s from shore then they would no longer be “seafarers” in any real sense of the word. You can call them “marine operations technicians” or whatever you want. But not seafarers.

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After a larger than life career, I think he’s bored. He’s just pushing peoples’ buttons to rile them up and keep himself amused.

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I have no employer or any agenda. I just post what I find that point towards what the future might hold for ships, shipping and seafarers. It may irritate some, but help others to gain knowledge.

I have no financial or other interests in this, but have always been occupied with the development of new things, although not with any great inventions to my name.
It is disappointing to see that things I have worked on, but not succeeded, sometime becomes reality, but with somebody else getting the credit.

A good advise to those who harbours ideas; be doggedly persistent and don’t loose faith in your invention. I don’t say that you will be guaranteed to succeed, but if you don’t hang in there you are guaranteed NOT to succeed.

Seafarers will go ashore and become Ship Operators, or whatever, but they will still be seafarers at heart.

Those who are able and willing to learn will still be operating ships, but from a location near their home. Those who don’t will still sail old rust buckets across oceans and be away from home half (or more) of the time.

I didn’t think of it that way, but maybe, just maybe, you got a point there.

Very little.

Your position that a ship cannot cross an ocean without catastrophic failure unless human eyes and hands are a meter away from every device is absurd.

Excellent malaprop.

Ooops, went a little fast there. Now corrected.

I have spent over 20 years on ferries and we had mechanical failures
quite often. At times that I was on ships there were always people
there taking care of small or large failures. Many unforeseen events do
take place, nothing is perfect. How many days or crossings have you
been on where everything was perfect and there were no mechanical or
electronic incidents that require human intervention?

I repeat again: It is not intended to take a traditional ferry, or a ship intended for manned voyages and send it across the ocean. Autonomous ships will be designed built and equipped differently, with lots of redundant systems and minus all the things that is there to keep the crew alive and reasonably comfortable.

It is not a given that propulsion will be by a diesel engine, or electric propulsion driven by diesel generators. If you read the many articles quoted in this thread you will have a good idea of what is likely to be the Future Ships and it looks very little like what you see today.

PS> I don’t think you’ll see ferries and ships carrying passengers being totally without crew, but they may still be technically autonomous, or remote controlled. Cruise ships may have an actor playing the role of Captain for the benefit of the passengers. Somebody have to host the Captain’s Dinner.

Bwahahahahahahahaha!! So when the ship pulls a “Schettino” does he get in the first lifeboat holding his SAG card and start calling his agent??

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In the 40 days before the homebuilt boat failed to communicate (and every 40 days since), around 96000 airliners crossed the Atlantic, most of them without a human hand touching much of anything other than the radio.

I suggest that those airliners are far more complex than the homebuilt boat and incorporate redundancies undreamed of by the kids who built it. Systems on those autonomous ships will more closely resemble airliners than cheaply built ferries operated by semi-skilled labor.

Ahh, but those airliners do have a Captain on board them should the autonomous systems fail.

Ummmm
 I’m just going to say “wanna bet?” on this one
 Especially if US shipyards in the bayou get involved somehow


How does the EU see the Future of Autonomous shpis and shipping??
Here is how: https://theloadstar.co.uk/eu-unveils-vision-new-autonomous-era-shipping-history/