Rolls-Royce publishes vision of the future of remote and autonomous shipping

The Rolls-Royce led Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA) today published a whitepaper to coincide with its presentations at the Autonomous Ship Technology Symposium 2016 in Amsterdam. The whitepaper outlines the Project’s vision of how remote and autonomous shipping will become a reality.

Speaking at the Symposium Oskar Levander, Rolls-Royce, Vice President of Innovation – Marine, said: “This is happening. It’s not if, it’s when. The technologies needed to make remote and autonomous ships a reality exist. The AAWA project is testing sensor arrays in a range of operating and climatic conditions in Finland and has created a simulated autonomous ship control system which allows the behaviour of the complete communication system to be explored. We will see a remote controlled ship in commercial use by the end of the decade.”

The AAWA whitepaper explores the research carried out to date on the business case for autonomous applications, the safety and security implications of designing and operating remotely operated ships, the legal and regulatory dimensions and the existence and readiness of a supplier network to deliver commercially applicable products in the short to medium term.

The whitepaper draws on a wide range of expertise from academic researchers from some of Finland’s leading universities: Tampere University of Technology; VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd; Åbo Akademi University; Aalto University; and the University of Turku. Industry input has been provided by leading members of the maritime cluster including Rolls-Royce, Brighthouse NAPA, Deltamarin, DNV GL and Inmarsat.

The project also has the support of shipowners and operators. The tests of sensor arrays are being carried out aboard Finferries 65 metre double ended ferry, the Stella, which operates between Korpo and Houtskär. ESL Shipping Ltd is helping explore the implications of remote and autonomous ships for the short sea cargo sector.

The white paper can be downloaded here: http://www.rolls-royce.com/products-and-services/marine/services/ship-intelligence/remote-and-autonomous-operations.aspx

Press photos are available for download at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/rolls-royceplc/sets/72157647334399764/

About Rolls-Royce Holdings plc

Rolls-Royce’s vision is to be the market-leader in high performance power systems where our engineering expertise, global reach and deep industry knowledge deliver outstanding customer relationships and solutions. We operate across five businesses: Civil Aerospace, Defence Aerospace, Marine, Nuclear and Power Systems.
Rolls-Royce has customers in more than 120 countries, comprising more than 400 airlines and leasing customers, 160 armed forces, 4,000 marine customers including 70 navies, and more than 5,000 power and nuclear customers.
We have three common themes across all our businesses:
- Investing in and developing engineering excellence
- Driving a manufacturing and supply chain transformation which will embed operational excellence in lean, lower-cost facilities and processes
- Leveraging our installed base, product knowledge and engineering capabilities to provide customers with outstanding service through which we can capture aftermarket value long into the future.
Annual underlying revenue was £13.4 billion in 2015, around half of which came from the provision of aftermarket services. The firm and announced order book stood at £76.4 billion at the end of 2015.
In 2015, Rolls-Royce invested £1.2 billion on research and development. We also support a global network of 31 University Technology Centres, which position Rolls-Royce engineers at the forefront of scientific research.
Rolls-Royce employs over 50,000 people in more than 46 countries. Nearly 15,700 of these are engineers.
The Group has a strong commitment to apprentice and graduate recruitment and to further developing employee skills. In 2015 we employed 228 graduates and 277 apprentices through our worldwide training programmes.

About AAWA

The AAWA project brings together universities, ship designers, equipment manufacturers, and classification societies to explore the economic, social, legal, regulatory and technological factors which need to be addressed to make autonomous ships a reality. It will produce the specification and preliminary designs for the next generation of advanced ship solutions.

The project combines the expertise of some of Finland’s top academic researchers from Tampere University of Technology; VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd; Åbo Akademi University; Aalto University; the University of Turku; and leading members of the maritime cluster including Rolls-Royce, NAPA, Deltamarin, DNV GL and Inmarsat.

The project has received €6.6 million from Tekes (Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation).

The project will run until the end of 2017.

Pioneering the power that matters

Rolls-Royce pioneers cutting-edge technologies that deliver clean, safe and competitive solutions to meet our planet’s vital power needs.