Page 28: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2022)

DIGITALIZATION THE PATH TO AUTONOMY “We see autonomous vehicles to be the solution to decreasing maritime accidents as eight or nine out of 10 are caused by human error and other crew related factors, such as the obstruction of the Suez Canal last year.”

Dohyeong Lim, CEO, Avikus, a start-up company spun of from HHI Group in 2020 specialized in developing autonomous navigation solutions.

Image Courtesy AVIKUS

Taking the ‘Next Step’ While the focus is squarely on the technology, there remain

While the ink has just dried on the agreement, all partners myriad missing pieces to putting together the full autonomy are busy plotting the path ahead. puzzle. “ABS does not believe the timeline is going to be driv- “We will be starting work on the ? rst project this month. It en by technology pace – that has proven to be rapid enough is very exciting – it will be a sea trial of autonomous naviga- and accelerating,” said Ryan. “The timeline is going to be tion and collision detection and avoidance (CDCA) technol- driven by the industry’s, and society’s, ability to answer tough ogy on an actual voyage of an LNG carrier across the Paci? c questions. Tough regulatory, legal, and safety questions.

that will take place in late Q1 or early Q2,” said Ryan. “The “In order to answer those questions, we need experience second will be the incorporation of autonomous technology and knowledge on real commercial vessels. That is why this including navigation, CDCA and engine room functions on a framework agreement between KSOE, HHI, Avikus and ABS vessel currently being constructed and that will happen later is so important.” in the year.” “Recently, some autonomous solutions that satisfy Maritime “The agreement with ABS at CES 2022 is important not just Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) Level 1 de? ned by IMO for HHI Group to develop and demonstrate a suite of world- have already started to make an appearance in the market,” class technologies, but also for ABS to lead the way for setting said Dohyeong Lim, CEO, Avikus. “One of HHI Group’s so- the grounds and international standards on future autonomous lution, HiNAS, presented by Avikus during last month’s CES, vessels,” said Sungjoon Kim. “HHI Group and Avikus plan to meets MASS Level 1 fully and 2 partially. It has been applied showcase the highest level of autonomous navigation technol- to small vessels such as leisure boats and is also installed in ogy based on HiNAS (Hyundai Intelligent Navigation Assis- HHI Group’s all standard-type ships starting this year.” tant System) on a commercial LNG carrier this spring.” “HHI Group is preparing the commercial launch of MASS “We also plan to hold a demonstration for the autonomous Level 2 autonomous navigation vessels and relevant solutions functions, as categorized by ABS, for the 2,300 GT whale- by 2024,” said Sungjoon Kim, KSOE. “Looking further out, watching vessel,” said Dohyeong Lim, CEO, Avikus. “Various we anticipate that a commercial launch of an autonomous ves- solutions related to navigations solutions, machinery diagnos- sel that can resolve all the aforementioned concerns and prob- tics, safety management and remote control will be exhibited lems to a satisfactory level while being designated to MASS during the demonstration in the second half of this year.” Level 3 and 4, will most likely happen post 2030.” 28 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • April 2022

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