Autonomy at Sea - A Special Report

A word from the editor…

While the word ‘autonomy’ is bandied about rather a lot, strictly speaking it’s not quite here in the commercial marine world.

On land in California, Waymo’s electric autonomous taxis have really taken off, with the company’s statistics reporting that more than 14 million trips were made last year. These are almost completely autonomous: they take bookings, drive to required destinations, park legally and lock themselves when not in use, or return to a depot.

The only function a human has is to physically plug them in to charge up.

In commercial marine the pace is slower, as is often the way with newer technologies, and most truly autonomous vessels are found in defence or research contexts.

But it’s coming, and with the cost, safety and efficiency benefits, why wouldn’t it?

One of the hurdles is the lack of coherent classification and regulations so far – these are being developed but there is a way to go, with different classification authorities using different parameters to class them, and the IMO telling Maritime Journal that many of its codes and guidance were ’presently under development’.

This report features a selection of the companies that are diving into the space, such as Fincantieri, with its swarm of subsea drones; Subsea Europe Services, which has a holistic approach to connect assets from deep underwater to the clouds above; and Hefring Marine, which is improving its predictive models by daily gathering more and more data on real-time events to inform situations at sea.

Our sponsor, SEA.AI, also explains its machine vision approach, calling it a ‘critical layer’ in maritime autonomy that will reduce crew workload and forms the foundation for increasingly automated operations in the near future.

We talked to Dynautics, who have cut the umbilical and have a ‘nose-up’ approach to battling tricky subsea communications; and ACUA Ocean, whose Pioneer sets an offshore benchmark with hydrogen propulsion.

Across uncrewed maritime operations, CUSP, MarineAI and RAD Propulsion address perception, decision-making and propulsion. CUSP enables practical 3D seabed imaging from USVs for safer offshore wind development. MarineAI reduces cognitive load on ship bridges by prioritising what matters in confined waters; and RAD Propulsion supplies electric drives and open control architectures that deliver quieter, longer-endurance hybrid vessels across defence markets globally.

There’s a lot to get into – enjoy reading!

- Debbie Mason, Editor, Maritime Journal
dmason@mercatormedia.com