Smart Industry 1/2019

• Ships need to be able to communicate
wherever they are – even under
bad weather conditions
• Technology has to be integrated
into the existing infrastructure
• Solutions have to be compulsively
cost-effective
In this case, the project is operating
in a rather small and very safe area.
There are just two harbors involved
and they’re only about 30 kilometers
away from the production facility.
Since the project replaces the expensive
road transportation of goods,
amortization of the high cost will not
take very long. In addition, the vessel
serves as a beacon project. The developers
describe the whole project as
“a huge turning point for the global
shipping industry.”
There are many small companies and
start-ups doing development and
research in this area but we will probably
see remote-controlled ships long
before they go fully autonomous.
Netherlands-based Kotug demonstrated
this live at the international
tug, salvage, and offshore support
vessel (OSV) convention ITS 2018 in
Marseille, France. For the presentation,
a captain took over control of
the steering and engine systems of a
tug in Rotterdam (over 900 km away)
using a secured Internet connection
and live cameras. The company stated:
“The real-time sensor technology
makes it possible to give the remotecontrol
captain the situational awareness
that is needed for safe operation.
Combined with the drone technology
to connect the towline, unmanned
shipping is commercially and technically
getting closer.”
Liftoff Achieved
Also in January,
Boeing successfully
tested its first
autonomous passenger
air vehicle (PAV)
prototype, an electric
vertical takeoff and
landing (eVTOL)
aircraft, from an
airstrip in Manassas,
Virginia.
photo ©: Airbus
Taxis in Flight
In January, Airbus’
Vahana team successfully
flew their
autonomous air taxi
for the first time,
combining electric
propulsion and
machine vision in
order to “democratize
personal flight.”
their on-board computers, and several
other in-flight functions are performed
or confirmed by computers.
Indeed, the pilot’s task is increasingly
focused on managing and overseeing
the aircraft and its systems.”
While the vast majority of ships carry
cargo, airplanes are mostly used by
travelers. This leads to one of the biggest
obstacles in the way of autonomous
planes: fear. The UBS worldwide
report Flying Solo: How far are
we down the path towards pilotless
planes? concerning the future of air
transportation canvassed more than
8,000 people. The authors found that
54 percent of the respondents said
they would refuse to board a pilotless
aircraft – and a lower fare would not
make them change their mind. The
number of people who said they’d
be happy to fly on a plane without a
pilot was only 17 percent. The report’s
conclusion shows that the question
was current: “Technically speaking,
remotely-controlled planes carrying
passengers and cargo could appear
by 2025.”
Sooner or later they will appear, since
the report also found the industry
spends more than $30 billion on pilots
annually. Before passenger acceptance
increases, the first noteworthy
steps in this direction will likely
be seen in cargo flights. The two big
players in this field, Airbus and Boeing,
are working on the subject, but
they are keeping quiet about it and
there is hardly any information available.
Both companies are more open
about their smaller, autonomous air
“taxis.” Boeing, for example, proudly
published information about a successful
test they did with an autonomous
passenger air vehicle in January
2019. The prototype completed a
controlled takeoff, hover, and landing
to test the autonomous functions and
ground control systems.
It’s not only the big companies that
are working on this theme; start-ups,
like the Bavarian company Lilium, are
developing quickly. So it may well
happen that small, battery-driven air
vehicles will be the first commercial
autonomous flying objects – and if
passengers have trust in them, they
may eventually accept bigger planes
without pilots.
It looks like we are very close to revolutions
in trains and boats and planes.
The technology for autonomous vehicles
is already available but what’s
still missing are standards for communications
across several systems, acceptance
with passengers, and more
results from field testing. We have
only looked at a few use cases but
there are many more examples and
the revolution could happen faster
than we think.
Robo-Pilots Ready for
Takeoff
In a Q-Series Report in 2017, investment
bank UBS stated, “Commercial
jets already take off and land using
photo ©: Boeing
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