NYK, Ghelia join hands on autonomous ships

Japanese shipping company Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) and compatriot AI solutions provider Ghelia have entered into a business and capital alliance agreement to collaborate on projects regarding autonomous ships.

The shipping industry has recently seen a number of requests involving the development and design of digital engineering and digital twins, the establishment of fully autonomous ship systems, and technological innovation such as next-generation energy for decarbonization. The same can be said for ensuring safety throughout the process of vessel operation.

Under these circumstances, the NYK Group has been strengthening its initiatives in the technological field related to next-generation ships. 

Meanwhile, Ghelia has been developing a wider and deeper range of technologies — such as AI in edge terminals, deep reinforcement learning, image data processing, and natural language processing — and crafting them into products and services.

As explained, NYK has invested in Ghelia and the two partners will work on autonomous ships and avoidance technology as well as promote DX by introducing Ghelia’s AI technologies to business processes in NYK’s sales divisions, and corporate divisions.

In accordance with this alliance agreement, NYK and Ghelia will work to realize AI technologies at NYK. In the future, both companies will try to create and utilize advanced, practical AI services, aiming at leading the global shipping industry and contributing to further expansion of the industry.

Specifically, the partners aim to cooperate on:

• Strengthening of next-generation technology, such as the development methods and design of digital engineering and digital twins;
• Development and design of, and the establishment of, fully autonomous ship systems, in addition to technological innovation such as next-generation energy for decarbonization;
• Technological innovation for next-generation ships, such as autonomous ships and ships with new energies;
• Strengthening of technology for safety throughout the shipping process;
• Improvement of work efficiency in offices by introducing AI technologies.

“Through this alliance with NYK, …we will lead the practical application of AI solutions in the shipping industry, where digitization and implementation of AI are urgently needed on a global level. Together with NYK, we will promote the transformation of this industry,” Makoto Saito, president and CEO of Ghelia said.

To remind, a few days ago, NYK placed an order for its fifth liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) dual-fuel very large LPG/liquefied ammonia gas carrier (VLGC) from compatriot shipbuilder Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI).