ABS okays autonomous tech developed by world’s largest shipbuilder

Classification society ABS has granted approval in principle (AIP) to South Korean shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries Group (HHI Group) for the development of autonomous technology at sea.

As informed, the AIP was awarded for four areas of autonomous functions: navigation, machinery health management, fire fighting management and network infrastructure.

“ABS understands that autonomous technologies are not stand-alone products but fully integrated with vessel infrastructure and the result of numerous advancements in a wide variety of mechanisms including sensors, imaging, connectivity, machine learning and more. When used in vessel operations, autonomous functions have the potential to increase safety by reducing human error,” Patrick Ryan, ABS Senior Vice President, Global Engineering and Technology, said.

“HHI Group is a step closer to developing fully autonomous ships by receiving AIPs for not only autonomous navigation systems but also condition based maintenance (CBM) for machinery, onboard safety management and infrastructure,” Kim Sung-Joon, Senior Executive Vice President and CTO of KSOE, commented.

He added that HHI aims to “lead the market” by completing commercialisation and demonstration ahead of time in consideration of the IMO’s regulations on autonomous vessels.

Avikus, a company specializing in autonomous navigation for HHI Group, has obtained approval from ABS for their autonomous navigation system HiNAS 2.0 which will be a standard application for all new construction vessels at HHI Group beginning next year.

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE), the center of HHI Group’s shipbuilding sector, has obtained approvals for its machinery automation system, HiCBM; an onboard integrated safety control system, HiCAMS; and an autonomous ship integrated platform, Pont.OS. Artificial intelligence (AI) drives the mechanisms for HiCBM and HiCAMS and can diagnose the condition of mechanical equipment or identify and manage situations such as fires without human intervention.

The integrated platform, Pont.OS, is an open platform that can integrate and control various autonomous functions of ships and is expected to provide an infrastructure that enables safe autonomous and remote operation of ships.

HHI signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ABS at CES 2022, the world’s largest electronic and information technology exhibition, held in Las Vegas in January. As part of the agreement, the two companies will collaborate on autonomous technologies for the shipping industry and include outputs such as AIPs and demonstration tests of ship operations.