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Autonomous ships on the horizon

17th November 2016 - 12:30 GMT | by Shephard News Team

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Rolls-Royce and Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre have announced a collaboration for the development of remotely piloted and autonomous ships, Rolls-Royce announced on 14 November.

The strategic partnership will design, test and validate the first generation of autonomous vessels with the aim of entering the commercial market by 2020.

Working with VTT will allow Rolls-Royce to assess the performance of remote and autonomous designs through the use of both traditional model tank tests and digital simulation, allowing the company to develop functional, safe and reliable prototypes.

VTT brings expertise to the collaboration including the development and management of safety-critical and complex systems in demanding environments such as nuclear safety, physical tests such as model and tank testing, and digital technologies such as data analytics and computer visualisation. The company will also use field research to incorporate human factors into safe ship design.

Karno Tenovuo, Rolls-Royce, vice president ship intelligence, said: ‘Remotely operated ships are a key development project for Rolls-Royce Marine, and VTT is a reliable and innovative partner for the development of a smart ship concept. This collaboration is a natural continuation of the earlier User Experience for Complex systems project, where we developed totally new bridge and remote control systems for shipping.’

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