Autonomous Shipping Opening New Doors of Possibilities in Maritime Industry By CIOReviewIndia Team

Autonomous Shipping Opening New Doors of Possibilities in Maritime Industry

CIOReviewIndia Team | Friday, 30 August 2019, 13:30 IST

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CIOReview TeamAutonomous Ships Market is projected to reach USD 13.8 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 7 percent; increasing seaborne trade, increasing compliance with maritime safety norms, and the growth in maritime tourism are some factors that are expected to fuel the growth of the Autonomous Ships market. Moreover, opening new doors of possibilities for this domain, Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS), IMO’s Marine Safety Committee (MSC) at its 99th session last year, began assessing the case for autonomous vessels. The MSC is set to meet again this year to review the findings of the tasks set at MSC 100 with view to proposing new amendments for Autonomous Shipping. Unmanned ships can generally be categorized accordingly with their level of automation - remotely operated vessels and completely autonomous vessels.     

With the technological penetration opening new possibilities, legal, safety and cyber security issues are expected to limit the growth of autonomous vessels in near future. “Technology uptake will be gradual, focusing first on automating simple processes on smaller ships, making repetitive journeys,” said Roberto Coustas, CEO at DeepSea Technologies.

Some of the benefits that Autonomous Shipping will bring forth:

Reduction in Crew Costs – 30 pecent of a voyage’s total cost is related with crew-related expenses, unmanned or partly-manned vessels could reduce significant cost for shipping carriers, and ultimately for those shipping goods, in the long run.

Operational Safety - According to a study by Allianz, 75 percent and 96 percent of maritime-related accidents are caused by human error. Introducing fully-autonomous and semi-autonomous vessels may help reduce the number of shipping-related accidents, as employee fatigue and personal judgment failures can be reduced considerably.

Energy Efficiency - As shipping vessels account for 3 percent of global carbon-dioxide emissions, the adoption of zero-emission ships could notably reduce pollution around the world; the development of vessels such as the Yara Birkeland is expected to be the first fully-electric, and zero-emission vessel.

Data Collection - As the Startups and Corporate are digitizing the shipping process and seeking to optimize logistics, autonomous ships will be well-equipped to further promote supply chain visibility by collecting voyage-related data through their autonomous systems.

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