HHI Group to present fully autonomous navigation for shipping industry

South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) Group is ready to demonstrate shipping mobility featuring fully autonomous navigational systems at the global tech-industry trade show in January 2022.

HHI Group, which includes the shipbuilder giant Hyundai Heavy Industries, is planning to offer a glimpse into the future of shipping mobility, with an emphasis on autonomous navigation during its debut at CES 2022, held from 5-8 January in Las Vegas.

To remind, in June 2021, the group’s in-house venture specializing in developing autonomous navigational systems, Avikus, became Korea’s first company to successfully demonstrate fully autonomous navigation of a 12-passenger cruise ship.

During the event, Avikus will present its autonomous navigation capabilities, using a six-metre leisure boat and demonstrating with the use of LEDs how the technology can be used in ocean shipping.

“The autonomous navigation technology allows an easier access to maritime leisure activities, provide innovations in logistics and transform all aspects of marine development”, the HHI Group’s spokesperson said and added that Avikus intends to become the world’s first company to conduct autonomous navigation of a large-scale commercial vessel in the ocean early next year.

In addition to the navigational system, the group will showcase its industrial machinery, which is merging AI with robot technology and introduce its vision into the future in the field of energy.

Hyundai Doosan Infracore and Hyundai Construction Equipment, the group’s industrial construction machinery units, will highlight the robotic industrial equipment and remote-control capabilities that provide safe and effective solutions in the building process from surveys, measuring, and operational planning to actual construction, HHI Group said.

Also, the blueprint for an offshore hydrogen value chain will be presented. According to HHI Group, through its network of units which include Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hyundai Oilbank, and Hyundai Electric, the blueprint has a business structure and technological capacity to cover full hydrogen value chains.

To present this, the group will install a 3.6-metre offshore wind generator and its model of a hydrogen-powered ship while offering a video presentation on its overall value chain.