SFI AutoShip: Autonomous Ships for Safe and Sustainable Operations

SFI AutoShip will contribute to Norwegian players taking a leading role in the development of both technology and business models for autonomous ships, with emphasis on safe, secure, environmentally friendly and cost-effective solutions. Through research-driven innovation, the centre will produce new knowledge, methods, tools, prototypes, technology and candidates for the Norwegian maritime industry. The Centre is hosted by the Dept. of Engineering Cybernetics, NTNU and involves 23 partners including ship operators, shipping companies, suppliers of ship equipment and technology, classification, insurance, authorities, public infrastructure owners, and research. Research partners are NTNU, SINTEF Ocean, SINTEF Digital, UiO, and IFE. Highlights in 2023: 1. We held a number or events with strong contributions from our partners, including SFI Days, two researcher workshops, one innovation workshop and one seminar on autonomous ships during Ocean Week. 2. The utilisation plan was adopted by the Board. We put emphasis on innovation training, by guiding our researchers towards investigating the commercial potential of their research findings. Initially, 17 innovation leads were produced by our researchers, which have already led to 3 DOFI submission to NTNU TTO. One of the DOFIs is currently being assessed by the Board regarding its potential for commercialisation. 3. We held a number of webinars, as a result of strong collaboration among our partners. The webinars stimulated discussions that have already had a strong impact on the Centre's activities. One example is a new working groups on COLREGS, which will commence its activities in January 2024, with strong industry presence. 4. We graduated one Postdoctoral researcher and hired a number of highly-qualified new researchers. Two of the new researchers started their work earlier in 2023, whereas 4 more are starting in December 2023 and January 2024. 5. The Centre's researchers have registered approximately 150 results in Cristin during 2023.

Autonomous ships have recently received significant attention in the maritime industry on a global level. The market is projected to reach USD 13.8 billion by 2030, driven by expected cost reductions in maritime and offshore operations, and improved safety of transportation. Societal safety will also be increased with transportation moved from roads to sea. The Norwegian maritime industry, with projects like Yara Birkeland, is currently one of the market leaders, but countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and Finland pose strong competition. Therefore, for Norway to stay ahead, it is imperative to take the lead in strategic areas of autonomous shipping. The Centre partners have identified the trade-off between safety and cost of operations as critical for the future of autonomous shipping. The following areas are identified as key enablers for balancing the trade-off, and thus the focus areas of the Centre: 1) Disruptive technological innovations, in areas such as sensor fusion and situational awareness, AI, autonomy and automation, digital infrastructure, human factors and remote-control centres, simulation and testing technology. 2) New business models that look at the larger transport system and result in design of sustainable operations. 3) Addressing the overarching challenge of safety and assurance, to guarantee that integration of all technology components will satisfy predefined operational performance and safety requirements in a holistic manner The aforementioned challenges cannot be solved in isolation. The added value of SFI AutoShip is to gather key actors from the Norwegian maritime cluster, representing the whole spectrum of end users, product and service providers, research institutes, universities and authorities to address these challenges. Through long-term research activities based on applied use cases, the Centre will educate highly qualified graduates will staff the Norwegian industry and help it stay ahead of the competition.