Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Successfully Completes Autonomous Ship Sea Trial

Technical Verification Completed for Autonomous Navigation Solution

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering's autonomous navigation test vessel, Danbi, is conducting sea trials. Photo by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghoon Jeong] Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering (DSME) has completed technical verification of its autonomous navigation solution through sea trials of an autonomous ship.

DSME announced on the 22nd that it successfully completed sea trials of an autonomous ship over two days from the 16th to the 17th of this month in the waters near Jebudo, West Sea.

To prepare for the future autonomous ship market and secure differentiated smart ship technology, DSME signed an MOU last year with the Gyeonggi Free Economic Zone Authority, Siheung City, and Seoul National University Siheung Campus for the development and demonstration of autonomous navigation technology. They also built the autonomous navigation test vessel 'Danbi (DAN-V)' and have been conducting related tests.

Autonomous ships are considered future technology that will change the paradigm of maritime transportation. To this end, the Korean shipbuilding industry has steadily secured related technologies and currently possesses core technologies for safe navigation; however, sea testing and actual shipboard installation records are still insufficient. Accordingly, DSME has been conducting various demonstration tests using Danbi, a dedicated autonomous navigation test vessel. In particular, Danbi is a dedicated autonomous navigation test vessel modeled after large commercial ships, allowing the acquisition of navigation data similar to that of large vessels, which is advantageous for verifying autonomous navigation systems for large commercial ships.

The recent sea trials included tests of key functions necessary for autonomous ship operation, such as remote control tests to verify the response of the engine and rudder to control commands transmitted from the control center, path-following tests to check whether the vessel follows the planned navigation route accurately, and collision avoidance tests to assess whether the ship correctly judges collision risks and avoids danger when encountering multiple vessels during navigation. Additionally, the trials completed testing of all systems required for autonomous ship operation, including remote communication between the ship at sea and the autonomous ship control center located at the Siheung R&D campus.

DSME stated that the successful completion of these trials has technically verified the autonomous navigation solution (DS4 Safe Navigation). They also noted that certification work for this technology is being conducted in collaboration with the Korean Register.

Choi Dong-gyu, Executive Vice President and Head of DSME Central Research Institute, said, "With the success of this trial, we have secured technology up to Lloyd’s Register autonomous navigation level 3 standards. Next year, we plan to apply the secured autonomous navigation technology to actual vessels for verification and aim to secure fully autonomous navigation technology by 2024."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.