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Rolls-Royce Eyes Autonomous Ships, Expects Remote-Controlled Cargo Ships By 2020 (pcmag.com)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via PC Magazine: Speaking at a recent symposium in Amsterdam, Rolls-Royce vice president of innovation for marine, Oskar Levander, said, "The technologies needed to make remote and autonomous ships a reality exist." In partnership with the Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA) project, Rolls-Royce, DNV GL, Inmarsat, Deltamarin, NAPA, Brighthouse Intelligence, Finferries, and ESL Shipping are leading the $7 million effort. Unmanned ships could save money, weight, and space, making way for more cargo and improving reliability and productivity, the AAWA said in a recent white paper. "The increased level of safety onboard will be provided by additional systems," Rolls-Royce said on its website. "Our future solutions will reduce need for human-machine interaction by automating selected tasks and processes, whilst keeping the human at the center of critical decision making and onboard expertise." Initial testing of sensor arrays in a range of operating and climatic conditions is already underway in Finland. Phase II of the project will continue through the end of 2017. Rolls-Royce plans to launch the first remote-controlled cargo ships by 2020, with autonomous boats in the water within the next two decades. Rolls-Royce was in the news last week when they unveiled their first driverless vehicle called The Vision Next 100.
nt
Remote controlled/autonomous ships near the Horn of Africa...
Fine, the pirates board, but they can't commandeer the ship, it's still going where the shipping company wants it.
Of course, that only lasts until someone breaks the remote control protocol and sells it to the pirates.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Some pirate somewhere is salivating at the thought of unmanned ships. I wonder if they are giving any thought to fending off pirates with an autonomous ship.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Until the ship gets infected with the Da Vinci as a ruse to blame innocent hackers because they copied the garbage file
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
There goes our jobs.
I rather suspect they've spent more on PR about the project than in R&D if that's all they're actually investment.
I wouldn't call that a "strong move" on their part, not by a longshot. What's that, .001% of their non-automotive, non-nuclear, market cap?
Unmanned ships could save money, weight, and space...
Seriously? The crew and crew quarters take up a significant fraction of the operating budget, weight and volume of a modern cargo ship? I'm not buying it.
Take a look at some of these ships: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Container_ship
and Remote Rolls-Royce, too. sweet
Is it truly autonomous if somebody remotely has control over a fleet of ships? If that's a new meaning for autonomous, then what about autonomous automobiles? What if a controller of a worldwide fleet of cars was to suddenly say "right turn Clyde"?
40% of a ships maintencence needs are done at sea, while under way. They can shut down parts of the engine to do maintencence on the ocean.
An remote controlled ship would spend more time at dock than current models.
And that is why remote ships won't set sail. Not pirates or crew costs but time spent being repaired at sea saves too much money.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Robot 765432 : *Oh no you have captured Robot 4858743. I must do as you command"
Pirate "Ah Ha Ha!"
Robot 765432 "JK we have a thousand more just like him back at the factory. BT We are now pumping toxic gas through the the vents, hope you didn't need air or anything squishbag. HA HA HA*
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Electronic Charts and Display Information Systems are old news (ca 1990). These smartish autopilots were required for large vessels in the wake of the Valdez disaster. There will always be a critical need for crew on board to handle unexpected failures: anybody see Our Finest Hour"?
What could go wrong with having huge autonomous supertankers and cargo ship meandering about the ocean with no human guidance? Nothing, nothing could possibly go wrong.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Who will fix the ship if it suffers a breakdown? Or a fire? Or oil leak? Or regain power on cooling containers? The crew on a ship has so many tasks other than navigation that can't be remote controlled that it will kill this idea. Besides modern ships transport in the area of 1000 containers for each crew member. I don't think size or weight ratio between crew quarters and cargo really matter.
Pirate = its your ass mr.postman....
The corporate entity of the original automobile manufacturer Rolls-Royce survives as an aviation engine corporation, which sold or licensed a trademark for automobiles to BMW in 1998. Is the Rolls-Royce proposing autonomous ships the aviation company (who have other industrial interests) or the company set up by BMW in '98 with the licensed brand name? For that matter, is the Rolls-Royce who were "in the news last week when they unveiled their first driverless vehicle" BMW's company, or the original?
Most of the comments are about pirates. Have you guys been living under a rock or what? Do you not know that the MPAA and RIAA have created all the technology required to defend against pirates?
For centuries, pirates were considered hostis humani generis, enemies of the human race, and any ship could arrest pirates on the high seas, try them, and execute them. A trial was required (if at all possible) because pirate ships often included people who were kidnapped or otherwise coerced to join the crew. Still today, on the high seas any nation may arrest and try pirates, but certain human rights protections have been added by treaty.
International piracy law in general refers to piracy on the high seas (international waters). Most modern piracy occurs in territorial waters, though. In territorial waters, the nation who controls that territoy has jurisdiction and has the option to authorize any action. An exception is Somalia, which has a bad problem with piracy. Treaties allow signatory nations to take "all necessary measures that are appropriate in Somalia for the purpose of suppressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea". "All necessary measures" is generally thought to mean that unless lethal force is NECESSARY, it's not allowed. However, pirates shoot at people trying to arrest them, so lethal force is often necessary.
Fly a drone onto a ship with a GPS jammer. Flip the coordinates around so that it thinks it's going to New York but is really going to Jamaica. The whole time it's transmitting the fake coordinates back to the control office where they think it's on schedule. By the time they realize it's not there, it's already been unloaded and the goods moved on.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
I don't think this will happen, as most cargo ships are crewed by slave labour. Unless Rolls Royce can make this cheaper than the cost of labour, (which is really, really low) the ship owners won't be interested.
You can bet your last penny that the Navy and naval forces around the world are already onto this idea. In essence a man ship acts as a tow and tender until somewhat near the conflict point. Then a sort of automated battle barge goes under its own power a couple of hundred miles and assumes a position and holds it. The design probably allows waves to slosh over the deck and has sides meant to deflect torpedoes. An example could be to control the entrance to a harbor. It could also be well equipped with missiles and drones to attack cities. I also would not be shocked if these battle barges are not able to sit silently on the ocean floor until ordered to rise to the surface and take action. Since no human life support is required they can sit in total silence for quite a long time if need be. It keeps troops out of harm's way and can effectively kill enemies. I would think that several Navies are already far along with something along these lines.
The driver-less Rolls was from Rolls Royce cars, which is just a BMW brand these days.
This announcement is from the Rolls Royce who make plane engines, submarine reactors, ship power plants and all sorts of other stuff but no cars.
"Physics is to math as sex is to masturbation." -R. Feynman
One is a German owned car company, the other a more general engineering company producing aeroplane engines and marine equipment, thus this report
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
v
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Now totally unrelated companies
How many ships will be checking their navigation against the stars or by any means other than GPS. Get it away from the area patrolled by navies and board without that hassle.
Great idea though...
This means that on arrival at a dockyard the cranes there will need easy access, which is not consistent with a ship inaccessible at sea.
Or maybe we could stop the Japanese, Chinese and Filipinos from strip-mining the Somali & Yemeni fisheries so the local fishermen didn't have to resort to piracy.
Maybe by teaching them to properly manage their own home fisheries.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
"I'm sorry, Abduwali, I'm afraid I can't do that. I am the captain now." (Hal; probably).
Hell.. combine this with a few of the robots from "Runaway" and "Screamers" you have defense _AND_ repair!
For centuries, pirates were considered hostis humani generis, enemies of the human race, and any ship could arrest pirates on the high seas, try them, and execute them. A trial was required (if at all possible) because pirate ships often included people who were kidnapped or otherwise coerced to join the crew. Still today, on the high seas any nation may arrest and try pirates, but certain human rights protections have been added by treaty.
International piracy law in general refers to piracy on the high seas (international waters). Most modern piracy occurs in territorial waters, though. In territorial waters, the nation who controls that territoy has jurisdiction and has the option to authorize any action. An exception is Somalia, which has a bad problem with piracy. Treaties allow signatory nations to take "all necessary measures that are appropriate in Somalia for the purpose of suppressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea". "All necessary measures" is generally thought to mean that unless lethal force is NECESSARY, it's not allowed. However, pirates shoot at people trying to arrest them, so lethal force is often necessary.
"The violent crime rate related to fishing boats is easily 20 times that of crimes involving tankers, cargo ships or passenger ships, said Charles N. Dragonette, who tracked seafaring attacks globally for the United States Office of Naval Intelligence until 2012. “So long as the victims were Indonesian, Malay, Vietnamese, Filipino, just not European or American, the story never resonated,” he said.
Prosecutions for crimes at sea are rare — one former United States Coast Guard official put it at “less than 1 percent” — because many ships lack insurance and captains are averse to the delays and prying that can come with a police investigation. The few military and law enforcement ships that patrol international waters are usually forbidden from boarding ships flying another country’s flag unless given permission. Witnesses willing to speak up are scarce; so is physical evidence."
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/20/world/middleeast/murder-at-sea-captured-on-video-but-killers-go-free.html?_r=0
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
We wouldn't want another Juan Valdez dark matter spill! Just say No! to sober robots!
http://pixa.club/en/futurama/s...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Rolls Royce the car brand has nothing to do with Rolls Royce. Not anymore.
What could possibly go wrong? (See other posts for some of the answers.)
There's no time like the present. Well, the past used to be.