Slashdot Mirror
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.
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
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.
Speaking as an experienced sailor, this is by far the biggest problem with autonomous ships.
This is a bit like setting booby traps in your home to nail burglars:
Two big differences: booby traps often get unintended targets. the drones or gas here would happen only after a human verifies they are real pirates on board, and not just stowaways. Secondly, the law for piracy on the high seas has always been very different to burglary. You don't hang burglars. But lethal force against pirates is fine by me. Its not like you can sent the village constable around to question them.
Nope, all arming merchant ships did historically was increase costs. The best value in concentration of force is a Navy, and it's action is not for purely material protection without real risk to life. Despite your ultra-violent fantasies the real world works very differently, and the only outcome for what you propose is an arms race that results in more unnecessary deaths, and only increasing losses to shipping increasing insurance costs.
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.