Unmanned Surface Vessel:Marching towards the future

Reporter Xu Miaomiao

Recently, a variety of new technologies and new products “contended in beauty and fascination” during the high-profile Shanghai Maritime Exhibition. Unmanned surface vessel, as a major achievement of the advanced stage of intelligent ship exploration, has undoubtedly become the focus of the Exhibition. To enhance the understanding of the industry of USV, China Classification Society (CCS)in the exhibition forum introduced the“Guideline for Inspection of USV” developed based on the GBS concept, and issued the principle approval certificate of USV to Zhuhai Yunzhou intelligent Co.Ltd. making the boat as the first USV which has obtained CCS principle approval. It can be seen that the unmanned surface vessel whose mysterious veil has been uncovered is moving towards the public.

In recent years, with the decrease of cost, the application of USV technology in the civil field has been accelerating.According to Pan Deng, director of the platform department of Zhuhai Yun Zhou Technology Co., Ltd. the rapid development of USV is mainly based on two reasons. The first is the driving force of demand.At present, the demand for USV is becoming more and more extensive and intensive. Taking Yun Zhou company as an example, their products cover many fields, such as environmental protection, hydrology,surveying and mapping, security patrols, military,unmanned shipping and so on. The second reason is the driving force of technology. Currently, the development and popularization of unmanned technology has become fully mature, for example, the communication technology, control technology, voice recognition,image recognition, sensor technology, mechanical learning and deep learning technology have been widely applied in all walks of life. The development of the USV is the application and popularization of artificial intelligence industry applied in the traditional shipbuilding industry. At present, in all product sales of Yun Zhou Technology Co., Ltd, the civil products accounted for more than half.

In the future, as human exploration extends to the ocean, USV and even unmanned vessel in China will extend their antennae to the ocean. All kinds of dangerous or repetitive work will be unmanned,intelligent, standard, and networking. Unmanned vessel can carry out various tasks by carrying different sensor systems, such as marine environment monitoring,marine hydrological data observing, marine resources exploring and marine disaster warning. It is foreseeable that the future development of the unmanned vessel will be “closer with the public”.

At home and abroad, the application of USV is more and more widely like bamboo shoots merging after a spring rain. CCS started the research and establishment work of the Guideline for Inspection of USV in May 2017 based on the market demand and the requirement of CCS intelligent ship technology research, and issued the first “Guideline for inspection of USV” at the end of 2017.

The Guideline is based on the concept of IMO goalbased ship construction standard (GBS), and its basic framework structure contains two parts, i.e.requirements for classification survey, and general goals and functional requirements. It is worth mentioning that the USV can carry out assigned tasks by carrying various task loads. Huang Zhaoxia said that considering the diversity of mission and the uncertainty of load needed to complete the mission, the guideline does not include the requirements for mission load and function to accomplish the designated tasks by USV. At the same time, since the USV can be carried onboard the mother ship, and it can not only carry out tasks in the domestic waters, but also in the unlimited shipping areas, the scope of application of the Guidelines is not limited to any water area. In addition, the Guideline clearly requires that the USV, when involving people driving and operating, should meet CCS’ related requirements for manned boat.

It can be seen that the Guideline meets the current approval requirements for plan approval and survey of unmanned boat, and the corresponding system and product. The launch of the Guideline will play a leading role in application of unmanned boat and provide a new opportunity for CCS to promote the follow-up approval of USV and promotion of products and services, and to provide stronger support for CCS to provide safer,more environment-friendly, more economic and reliable services to ship owners. The release of the Guideline release is timely with comprehensive coverage, clear functional requirements, and is highly significant in providing guidance. At present, CCS has signed strategic cooperation with Zhuhai Yun Zhou intelligent Technologies Co. Ltd and issued CCS's first principle approval certificate of USV. In the future, more USVs will apply for CCS inspection.