Rolls Royce to unveil remote controlled ‘robo-ships’ by 2020

There are indications that Rolls Royce would be extending its robotic transportation plans beyond luxury cars, as the British transportation firm outlined a strategy for deploying remote-controlled and autonomous cargo vessels.

The engineering firm, in a white paper published recently, said it is working on virtual decks where land-based crews could control every aspect of a ship, complete with VR camera views and monitoring drones to spot issues that no human ever could.

It expected to see a fleet of ‘drone ships’ on the high seas by 2020.

Speaking at an Autonomous Ship Symposium in Amsterdam, Rolls Royce Vice President of Marine Innovation, Oskar Levander said the technology is already in place.

“This is happening. It’s not if, it’s when. The technologies needed to make remote and autonomous ships a reality exist. We will see a remote controlled ship in commercial use by the end of the decade.”

Levander said testing is underway in Finland and the group has already created a simulated autonomous ship control system.

The 6.6 million euro ($7.3 million) project is due to run until 2017 and has drawn on smartphones, aviation drones and driverless cars to help develop unmanned ships.

Rolls said the new technology includes designing of boats where humans wouldn’t have to come aboard. In theory, it said one human would steer several boats and crew shortages would disappear overnight.

The advantages of an autonomous ship include the weight, space and cost saving of removing accommodation quarters.

It stated: “The move to crew-free ships promises more than a few advantages, Rolls says. You wouldn’t need a bridge or living quarters, so you’d have much more room for the goods you’re hauling. They’d be safer and more efficient, too, since you’d cut out many human errors (not to mention the direct risks from rough weather and pirates) and streamline operations. Robotic ships might cut the number of available jobs, but they would let distant crews handle more complex tasks without being overwhelmed,”

President of Rolls Royce Marine, Mikael Makimnen, said: “Autonomous shipping is the future of the maritime industry. As disruptive as the smart phone, the smart ship will revolutionize the landscape of ship design and operations,”

The white paper, titled ‘Remote & Autonomous Ships – the next step’, said the next step was to focus on safety, maritime insurance compliance and technology development in order to achieve ‘rapid commercialization’.

The paper describes how an onshore operator in a control room using a joystick could guide a ship out of a busy port area.

On-board sensors would inform the controller of any potential risks or obstacles.

In open sea conditions Rolls-Royce suggests the ship could run on fully autonomous settings, guided only by satellite connection and on-board sensors.