A new project to design an efficient and environmentally friendly high-speed planing boat has been launched.
The AUTOPLAN (Automatic Navigation Assistance System for Planing and Semi-planing Crafts) project kick-off meeting was held on 10 September.
In the short to medium term, the companies involved in the project will focus on developing an intelligent navigation assistance (INA) system for increasing the operational safety of planing boats by prediction of critical situations.
The project will look at integrating autonomous systems to increase safety and comfort while reducing the impact of the human factor in marine accidents. After numerical simulations and model tests for validation, an optimised prototype boat will be built and extensive full-scale sea trials will be carried out.
Included in the project is project coordinator Uzmar Shipyard, the Technical University of Berlin, Friendship Systems AG, OES-Offshore Engineering Solutions Inc., Mersin University, SVA Potsdam, and Piri Reis University.
AUTOPLAN is funded by the German federal ministry for economic affairs and energy and Tubitak Turkey.
It will be run in the framework of the MarTera (Maritime and Marine Technologies for a new Era) initiative, an ERA-Net Cofund scheme, part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
By Rebecca Jeffrey