Application of autonomous vehicles in maritime industry

• Main Author: Song, Pei Wei
• Other Authors: Chiu Sai Hoi, Benson
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2021
• Subjects: Engineering::Maritime studies
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/148945
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This volume focuses on the technical analysis of the adoption of autonomous vehicles in the maritime industry. For this report, the autonomous vehicles refer to both autonomous ships and automated guided vehicle(s) (AGV). In this report, I discussed the timeline of technical developments of autonomous ships from the past to the present. I interviewed maritime professionals to get a better understanding of jobs that can be done by an artificial intelligence system and gain an idea of the technologies contributing to the development of the technology. Through the findings from interviews and the research data, I found that current technical developments such as 5G, software developments, and the concept of system-of-systems engineering principle are the most relevant to the future of autonomous ships. Next, this report illustrates the ideal level of autonomy for the described autonomous vehicle. For autonomous ships, I referred to Lloyd’s list’s definition of the highest level of autonomy. By dissecting the given definition and pairing it with interview findings, a table that illustrates the ocean-going voyage of an autonomous ship was created. The table included the decisions an autonomous ship can make, the technologies involved, and whether the appraisal of such decisions requires Artificial Intelligence (AI) or a human. As for the AGV, my findings revealed that the technology is at its saturation point. Any further advancements would likely reap significantly less benefits per dollar spent. I recommend that for further improvements to the system, better communications infrastructures can be used. 5G communications with lower latency can further increase the productivity of the AGV. The types of decisions and functions such as routing system and detection of obstacles executed by either the AGV or its supervisory system are also distinguished in this report. This report will thus provide recommendations on how different stakeholders such as individual countries, organisations, and research institutions such as universities can join hands to share expertise and publish a standardised guideline and format for autonomous vehicles. This helps to play a part in the ecosystem to contribute to the adoption of autonomous vehicles in the maritime industry. In relation to the report, this volume provides a technical perspective on autonomous vehicles. The reader should be better versed in the technologies that contributes to the development and application of autonomous vehicles. In addition, readers can understand the constraints and possibilities of the autonomous vehicles’ usage in the related maritime sectors.