Futuristic bridge concept

Together with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Rolls-Royce has unveiled its latest vision of Ship Intelligence – a futuristic ship’s bridge concept which, they claim, could become reality by 2025.

Rolls-Royce has worked together with VTT’s researchers and Aalto University to develop the new bridge, known as the Future Operator Experience Concept or ‘oX’. It offers the crew smart workstations, which automatically recognise individuals when they walk into the bridge, and adjust to their own preferences.

The windows of the bridge serve as augmented reality displays of the vessel’s surroundings, including visualisation of potential hazards that would otherwise be invisible to the human eye. The system can, for example, pinpoint sea ice or tug boats and other craft that may not be visible to the crew, especially on large container ships.

Mikael Makinen, Rolls-Royce, President – Marine, said: “We are entering a truly exciting period in the history of shipping, where technology, and in particular the smart use of Big Data is going to drive the next generation of ships.”

While it will be some time before such monitoring and control sophistication makes it into marketable products, and some further time before it filters down to the workboat sector, it’s nevertheless an interesting concept.

By Jake Frith