How to equip ships with smart wings? How is autonomous navigation achieved? Let's reveal the secrets →

Driverless cars are not new, but have you ever seen an autonomous ship? The Ministry of Transport said that in recent years, my country has accelerated the digital transformation of shipping and promoted the application of smart shipping technology. The delivery and operation of the "Zhifei" is one of the signs that my country is at the forefront of the world in the development and application of smart shipping.

How to give ships smart wings? How does the "Zhifei" achieve autonomous navigation? What are the challenges of key technologies for smart ships? Come and take a look.

How does the “Zhifei” achieve autonomous navigation?

It is understood that the "Zhifei" can not only be automatically unmanned, but its excellent autonomous navigation system also enables it to automatically identify obstacles and avoid them during driving, and then return to the planned route to continue driving.

When sailing on the sea, it is impossible for the sky to be clear all the time. What should you do if you encounter heavy fog?

Captain Tian Yafeng of Zhifei: Heavy fog involves a system we developed independently, called the navigation assistance system. This three-dimensional model can display the real-time dynamic distance between the ship and other ships or obstacles and the dock. Through this, we can complete safe navigation in poor visibility weather.

How does the “Zhifei” achieve safe and efficient docking and undocking?

It is understood that docking and undocking is the most important moment in the entire voyage for a ship, and it is also somewhat dangerous. How does the intelligent brain of the "Zhifei" command it to achieve safe and efficient docking and undocking?

Captain Tian Yafeng of Zhifei: Our ship has this autonomous berthing and unberthing system, which has three characteristics: safe, reliable and efficient. It controls the ship's power system very well, eliminates the influence of wind and external factors, evenly distributes the ship's power, and berths and unberths the ship in parallel to the designated berth. It is very safe and can basically dock at the dock in ten minutes.

What is so difficult about “unmanned ship” technology?

What other technical difficulties are there in order to truly realize the "unmanned ship"?

Wang Guofeng, Dean of the Unmanned Ship Collaborative Innovation Research Institute of Dalian Maritime University: I think there are three main difficulties in the key technologies of intelligent ships. One is the perception of the ship's navigation environment, which actually also includes the perception of the ship's equipment. Another is the intelligent decision-making of a ship, that is, how can machines make decisions after replacing humans. Another is the control technology of the ship itself. Only when the control technology itself is perfected can machines replace human operations.

What is the current development status of intelligent ships in my country?

As a concentrated embodiment of the deep integration of modern information, artificial intelligence and other high-tech technologies with traditional port elements, smart ships can be said to be an important carrier for the development of new smart shipping formats. What is the current development status of smart ships in my country?

In recent years, my country's major ship design and construction companies, shipping companies, scientific research institutions, professional institutions, etc. have conducted useful explorations in the field of intelligent ships, and relevant scientific research has made positive progress. Among them, the representative demonstration projects mainly include: the world's first 38,800-ton intelligent bulk carrier "Dazhi" built in 2017, the world's first 400,000-ton intelligent ultra-large ore carrier "Mingyuan" delivered in 2018, the world's first 308,000-ton ultra-large intelligent crude oil tanker "Kaizheng" delivered in 2019, and my country's first autonomous ship "Zhifei" in 2022, which initially has remote control and unmanned autonomous navigation capabilities. In the same year, the first intelligent scientific research mother ship "Zhuhai Cloud" was officially delivered, which is my country's first ship to obtain open water autonomous navigation and remote control intelligent additional notations.