Many companies are taking part in Designing the Future of Full Autonomous Ship Project (DFFAS Project), which aims to realize a domestic coastal shipping business supported by crewless maritime autonomous surface ships.

Accordingly, the project will move towards the standardization of technology and the establishment of systems and infrastructure as well and plans to carry out a long-distance demonstration trial within 2021 in congested waters using a domestic coastal containership to realize the world’s first crewless maritime autonomous surface ship.

Within the scope of creating the future of crewless maritime autonomous surface, the project includes open collaboration among 22 domestic companies that are responsible for creating the future of the Japanese shipping industry, cooperating together with various domestic and foreign experts.

Also, development and demonstration of comprehensive system functions required for crewless maritime autonomous surface ships including remote operation in case of an emergency, automation of berthing/unberthing, operations in accordance with the approved route plan and action plan, and the monitoring of support functions from the fleet operation center (including ship-shore data communication system).

The companies participating in the project are Japan Marine Science Inc as the Project Leader; MTI Co Ltd; IKOUS Corporation; BEMAC Corp; SKY Perfect JSAT Corp; TOKYO KEIKI INC; Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp; NTT DOCOMO INC, Japan Radio Co Ltd; NYK; FURUNO ELECTRIC CO LTD; EIZO Corp; Weathernews Inc; NTT Communications Corp; Japan Hamworthy Co Ltd; Japan Marine United Corp; Nabtesco Corp; Nippon Shipping Co Ltd; Pluszero Inc; Honda Heavy Industries Co Ltd; Yokogawa Denshikiki Co Ltd; and Mitsubishi Research Institute Inc.

SOURCE: https://safety4sea.com/first-crewless-maritime-autonomous-surface-ship-to-commence-trials-in-2021