A new era of autonomous berthing and unberthing could be on the horizon following the success of a recent trial by Mitsui OSK Line.
The jointly developed effort saw the auto berthing and unberthing at a pier in Oarai Port, Ibaraki Prefecture, using the large-size car ferry, Sunflower Shiretoko, owned by MOL Ferry.
“This demonstration test is a world first from two aspects,” says MOL, “use of a large car ferry (gross tonnage: 11 410 tons) on one of its service routes, and conducting the test using an actual pier.”
The project team developed the ship operation plan, operation guide, criteria for cancelling the test, and so on, and used simulations to conduct a thorough safety assessment under various conditions.
In addition, the team conducted the demonstration test and verifying safety on the vessel in service by autonomously berthing and unberthing at a virtual pier.
Leveraging the results of this test, the project team will conduct similar tests at actual berths with other ship types, with the aim of developing a highly versatile technology.
