For a number of years , designers have developed various kinds of concepts for highly developed automation systems for ships , including remotely controlled and even totally autonomous vessels .
In North European waters , Rolls- Royce and the towage operator Svitzer demonstrated the world ’ s first remotely operated commercial vessel – a tug – at Copenhagen harbour in 2017 . Around the same time , Rolls-Royce Marine established a research centre for remote-controlled and autonomous ships in Turku in southwestern Finland .
In April 2019 , Rolls-Royce Commercial Marine became a fully integrated part of Kongsberg Maritime , but the research centre is still operational .
New technologies for various autonomous ship projects also include artificial intelligence ( AI ) systems for ship navigation . Among others , the Finnish Aalto University has participated in some of these projects .
VERSATILE AUTOMATION
However , maritime automation systems are not always intended to replace the ship ’ s human crew of operators by remote control or robotics . The development of sensors and automation systems for maritime applications can also benefit the operators of more traditional kinds of vessels .
In 2019 , for instance , AI-based systems were tested on board Tallink ’ s ship ’ Megastar ’ in order to improve the performance of ship positioning and to have a more complete and error-free picture of the ship ’ s surroundings , e . g . by recognising and eliminating possible errors of radar imaging and of navigation satellites . Such errors might be caused by environmental
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