ABS’ industry-leading support for the development of autonomous technology at sea took another step forward with the granting of approval in principle(AIP) to Hyundai Heavy Industries Group(HHI Group) for four areas of autonomous functions: navigation, machinery health management, fire fighting management and network infrastructure.
Avikus, a company specializing in autonomous navigation for HHI Group, has obtained approval from ABS for their autonomous navigation system HiNAS 2.0 which will be a standard application for all new construction vessels at HHI Group beginning next year.
Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering(KSOE), the center of HHI Group’s shipbuilding sector, has obtained approvals for its machinery automation system, HiCBM; an onboard integrated safety control system, HiCAMS; and an autonomous ship integrated platform, Pont.OS.
Artificial intelligence(AI) drives the mechanisms for HiCBM and HiCAMS and can diagnose the condition of mechanical equipment or identify and manage situations such as fires without human intervention.
The integrated platform, Pont.OS, is an open platform that can integrate and control various autonomous functions of ships and is expected to provide an infrastructure that enables safe autonomous and remote operation of ships.
HHI signed a memorandum of understanding(MOU) with ABS at CES 2022, the world's largest electronic and information technology exhibition, held in Las Vegas in January. As part of the agreement, the two companies will collaborate on autonomous technologies for the shipping industry and include outputs such as AIPs and demonstration tests of ship operations.