Mitsui O.S.K.Lines: World’s First Successful Sea Trial of Autonomous Sailing on a Commercial Container Ship Voyage

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President & CEO: Takeshi Hashimoto) today announced that together with its two group companies and the following consortium partners have successfully concluded the world’s first sea trial of unmanned ship operation from port to port (departure port: Tsuruga Port in Fukui Prefecture, arrival port: Sakai Port in Tottori Prefecture) on 24th and 25th January, as part of the unmanned ship project MEGURI2040 (Note 1) led by The Nippon Foundation.

The following two points are major features of the consortium’s role in the MEGURI2040 unmanned ship operation projects:

(1) The consortium conducted the sea trial with two different type of ships: a coastal containership and a coastal car ferry, aimed at using the results to develop versatile technologies by identifying similarities and differences between the two ship types.

(2) It conducted mooring tests using a drone in a move toward automated mooring operation.

Since MEGURI2040’s inception in 2020, the consortium has conducted various elemental experiments to realize autonomous ship operation. In October 2021, MOL Marine & Engineering Co., Ltd. conducted a safety verification test using its owned 3D simulator before this sea trial.

(Consortium members and its main roles)

Company name Main roles
MOL Overall coordination, risk evaluation
Mitsui E&S Shipbuilding Co., Ltd.
(MES-S; President: Isamu Funazu, Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo) Development of “Judgement” and “Ship Operation” functions
(Automated collision avoidance routing, automated ship operation in port, automated berthing/unberthing operation)
Furuno Electric Co., Ltd.
(President: Yukio Furuno; Headquarters: Nishinomiya-shi, Hyogo Prefecture) Development of “Cognitive” function
(Integration of information from sensors during navigation and at berthing)
Imoto Lines, Ltd.
(President: Takayuki Imoto; Headquarters: Kobe-shi, Hyogo Prefecture) Provide test ship and seafarers, develop ship operation plan.
A.L.I. Technologies, Inc.
(A.L.I.; President: Daisuke Katano; Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo) Development of mooring support technology
(Throwing a heaving line from the ship to the pier using a unmanned drone)
MOL Ferry Co., Ltd.
(President: Naotoshi Omoto; Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) Provide test ship and seafarers, develop ship operation plan.
MOL Marine & Engineering Co., Ltd.
(President: Takashi Nakajima; Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo) Create simulation program of collision avoidance navigation/ berthing/unberthing for testing automated function of those scene.
For autonomous navigation, the ships followed a previously formulated route using the MES-S-developed autonomous ship operation control system, in consideration of the following elements.

Accurately grasp ship location information
Various external elements such as wind and tides/currents
Ship handling performance specific to each ship (maneuverability, conditions of acceleration and deceleration)/configuration of ship handing equipment
Navigation rules applied to ships
Information on other ships and obstacles/debris on the set route was gathered by the Furuno Electric-developed autonomous surrounding information integration system (measures and displays positions, speed, types of nearby ships, and position of obstacles/debris by integrating information gained by cognition through radar, AIS, and camera images). Based on the integrated information, the ship navigated the safe route formulated by the autonomous collision avoidance routing system.