Rolls-Royce and Intel partner on autonomous shipping project

Rolls-Royce has recently developed the Intelligent Awareness System, which uses AI-based sensor fusion and decision-making technology to process information from a wide range of sources, including lidar, radar, thermal cameras, High Definition cameras, satellite data and weather forecasts.

This should help to improve maritime safety by making the ships’ crew more aware of their surroundings and the environmental conditions, and allowing them to detect other vessels or objects kilometres away, even in busy ports.

This is particularly important at night, in adverse weather conditions, or in congested waters, according to Kevin Daffey, director of ship intelligence at Rolls-Royce.

“It presents an unparalleled situational awareness of what’s around the vessel to the watch-keepers on the bridge, including distances, the names of the vessels that are near them, or how far they are from land,” he said.

“Over the next three years we’ll begin to see the first commercially-operated ships with some degree of autonomous functionality on board, moving towards vessels that can make their own decisions from around 2025 onwards,” he said.