China Drives Intelligent Shipbuilding Industry

Shu Gong

By the end of 2018, three Chinese government departments had successively issued action plans for intelligent ship assembly construction and intelligent ship to further improve the intelligent level of the Chinese shipbuilding industry.

Boost Intelligent Ship Assembly and Construction

On December 28, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration of Science,Technology and Industry for National Defense jointly issued the Action Plan for the Intelligent Transformation of Ship Assembly Construction (2019-2021)(hereinafter called “the Action Plan”).The Action Plan defines the guidelines,basic principles, main objectives, 15 key tasks in 5 categories and 6 safeguard measures for promoting the intelligent level of ship assembly construction in China in the next three years.

The Action Plan states that through 3-year effort, China will initially establish a technical innovation system and a standard system for the intelligent manufacturing of ships, substantially reduce the labor intensity of dirty,dangerous and difficult operations such as cutting, forming, welding and painting so as to obviously reduce the number of operators and significantly improve the level of management refinement and information integration of shipbuilding enterprise. Two or three benchmarking enterprises should take the lead in building some intelligent units, intelligent production lines and intelligent workshops with international advanced level, and mainstay enterprises will basically realize digital shipbuilding,so that the man-hour consumption per corrected gross tonnage can be reduced by more than 20% and the comprehensive energy consumption per unit corrected gross tonnage can be reduced by 10%, the construction quality and efficiency can reach the international advanced level,and a solid foundation can be laid for the construction of intelligent shipyard. At the same time, a number of key technologies and intelligent manufacturing equipment will be broken through, forming a batch of intelligent manufacturing standards and platforms will be built, and a number of intelligent manufacturing units, intelligent production lines and intelligent workshops will be completed.

In order to achieve the above objectives, the Action Plan has put forward 15 key tasks in five aspects --conquering key generic technologies and the short board equipment for intelligent manufacturing, tamp the intelligent ship manufacturing foundation, promote the full 3D digital design, accelerate intelligent workshop construction and drive shipbuilding digital integration and service. The method mainly comprises the following steps of: breaking through the key common technology of the intelligent manufacturing of the ship,developing the intelligent short-board equipment in the key link, advancing the basic control refinement and digitization,building the information infrastructure of the shipyard, establishing a standard system for intelligent manufacturing of the ship, and promoting the construction of a digital design system based on the model, advancing the informatization of marine product data management, and boosting the three-dimensional digital delivery delivery, continuous optimization of shipbuilding process, speeding up the construction of intelligent production lines for intermediate products, building the workshop manufacturing execution system, promoting digital workshop application demonstration, promoting integrated information integration of design, production and management,strengthening the information integration of shipbuilding industry chain, and exploring shipbuilding big data analysis and decision-making.

Develop Intelligent Ships

On December 29, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology,the Ministry of Transport and the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense jointly issued the Action Plan for Intelligent Ship Development (2019-2021)(hereinafter called “the Action Plan”).The Action Plan defines the guidelines,basic principles, action objectives, 9 key tasks and 5 safeguard measures for the development of intelligent ship development in China in the next three years.

The Action Plan focuses on strengthening the guidance for the development of the industry, highlighting the key areas and key links of the development of intelligent ships, making full use of the foundation and scientific research achievements of the related industries, promoting collaborative innovation, and forming a joint development force.

The Action Plan pledges to,through 3-year hard work, develop the Chinese top-level planning for the intelligent ship development, initially establish a standard system for intelligent ship specification, break through core technologies of intelligent perception of navigation situation, automatic berthing,etc., complete relevant key intelligent equipment system development, realize typical scenario pilot demonstration of remote control, autonomous navigation and other functions, complete relevant key intelligent equipment and system development, expand the demonstration and popularization of “one platform+N intelligent applications" for typical intelligent ships, initially build the comprehensive testing and verification capability of combining the virtual and real intelligent ships for the integration of coast and sea, so as to keep the development of intelligent ships in China in sync with the advanced level of the world.

In order to achieve the above goals, the Action Plan proposes 9 specific tasks -- to comprehensively strengthen the top level design, break through he key intelligent technologies,promote the intelligent upgrading of marine equipment, enhance the network and information security protection capabilities, strengthen testing and verification capability development, build a standard system for specifications,promote engineering application pilot demonstration, build cooperative development ecosystem, and promote the military and civilian deep integration.