An experiment was conducted off the coast of Kanagawa Prefecture to automatically operate a passenger ship using AI = artificial intelligence.
This experiment was conducted by a group created by the Nippon Foundation and a shipbuilding company on the route from Yokosuka Shinko in Kanagawa Prefecture to Sarushima, an uninhabited island 1.7 km offshore.
Cameras and sensors are installed everywhere on the small passenger ship developed by this group, which is 20 meters long and has a gross tonnage of 19 tons, and AI analyzes data such as the position of surrounding ships and the direction of the wind.
There are sailors in the control room to check the safety, but AI is controlling the speed and direction by moving the lever etc., and when it came near the pier, it berthed accurately while slowing down.
In the shipping industry, the aging of seafarers and labor shortages are issues, and the Group wants to further verify safety and put the automatic operation of small vessels into practical use by 2025, three years later.
Mitsuyuki Unno, Managing Director of The Nippon Foundation, said, "We will need to develop new infrastructure at the port for practical use, so we would like to identify issues through demonstration experiments."