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Autonomous ships are on the horizon: here’s what we need to know

Ships and ports are ripe for operation without humans — but only if the maritime industry can work through the practical, legal and economic implications first.
  1. Rudy R. Negenborn

    1. Rudy R. Negenborn is a full professor and head of the Researchlab Autonomous Shipping in the Department of Maritime and Transportation Technology, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands.

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  2. Floris Goerlandt

    1. Floris Goerlandt is an assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Risk Management and Resource Optimization for Marine Industries in the Department of Industrial Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada.

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  3. Tor A. Johansen

    1. Tor A. Johansen is a full professor in the Department of Engineering Cybernetics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.

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  4. Peter Slaets

    1. Peter Slaets is an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium.

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  5. Osiris A. Valdez Banda

    1. Osiris A. Valdez Banda is an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering (Marine and Arctic Technology), Aalto University, Finland.

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  6. Thierry Vanelslander

    1. Thierry Vanelslander is a full professor in the Department of Transport and Regional Economics, University of Antwerp, Belgium.

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  7. Nikolaos P. Ventikos

    1. Nikolaos P. Ventikos is an associate professor in the Laboratory for Maritime Transport, School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece.

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The world's first self-propelled, electric container ship MV Yara Birkeland is moored at Langkaia in Oslo, on November 19, 2021.

By 2024, the Norwegian container ship Yara Birkeland is expected to carry fertilizer autonomously from plant to port with zero emissions. Credit: Torstein Bøe/NTB/AFP via Getty

In January last year, a Japanese car ferry, the Soleil, became the first large vessel to navigate without human intervention. The 220-metre-long ship automatically berthed and unberthed, turned, reversed and steered itself for 240 kilometres across the Iyonada Sea from Shinmoji in northern Kyushu — manoeuvres that even skilled human operators find challenging.

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Nature 615, 30-33 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00557-5

References

  1. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Review of Maritime Transport (UNCTAD, 2022).

  2. International Maritime Organization. Fourth IMO Greenhouse Gas Study (IMO, 2020).

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  3. ABS. News Brief: MSC 106 (ABS, 2022).

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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