Dedicated to digital transformation
An electronic equipment supplier wants the industry to share all it knows about digital innovation
Furuno wants to move the digital transformation of marine electronics and autonomous ships forward by sharing the latest technological innovations already on the market, or poised for commercialisation.
It’s new website “Full Ahead with Furuno” explains how this digital transformation will lead to a revolution that will shake up the maritime industry in an increasingly connected and digital world. It also encourages interested parties to get involved in the discussion.
“The number of ships crossing the world’s oceans is growing every day and the seas are more crowded than ever. The size of ships is also increasing. It is becoming more critical to know the situation around the ship directly from the bridge to improve safety and security during any operation,” said Kazuma Waimatsu, senior executive officer of Furuno’s marine electronic products division and project leader.
“At Furuno, we have already taken up part of the challenge and created a system to support seafarers’ visual perception during operations using augmented reality (AR) technology, which will also be the first step towards the automated ship of the future.”
Future vision
The end aim of the website is to achieve Furuno’s ambition to achieve the future of commercial navigation – safe and efficient navigation even without human presence.
But Mr Waimatsu said that this grand ambition is achievable only when two essential conditions are met: Autonomous navigation and remote management.
Augmented reality technology has been implemented successfully in the automotive and gaming industries but has not been widely deployed in a maritime environment and this is something that Furuno is working towards.
Together, Furuno and Mitsui OSK Lines have already embarked on a joint development project laucnhing AR Navigation onboard 21 VLCCs in 2019.
In Japan, in 2020, under the sponsorship of the Nippon Foundation, MEGURI2040, Furuno began a joint project to develop the world’s first completely crewless ship. The company has established a special division to accelerate the development of sensors and technologies that will enable the creation of the ship by 2025.
Going forward, Furuno said that there are three significant steps on the road to achieving autonomous ship operation in future.
First, “Recognition Support” where products such as Furuno’s AR Navigation ENVISION take care of recognising the surrounding situation to increase awareness.
Next, “Decision Support” uses the information and interprets it to make an appropriate decision. Finally, “Ship Operational Support” which links that decision to the actual operation of the ship. But there’s still much work to be done in the last two areas.
