DCN October Edition 2019

MARITIME ENGINEERING & SALVAGE
Marine
engineering in an
autonomous future
Gamini Lokuketagoda, lecturer marine
engineering, Australian Maritime College
As autonomous shipping becomes more
widespread, could the marine engineer
of today cease to exist? Paula Wallace
asks the experts
Before getting into any in-depth discussion about the rise of
autonomous shipping or unmanned vessels, it’s important to
be clear what we mean by these terms.
At the most basic level, to run a ship between two ports
involves safe navigation and reliable propulsion machinery.
To run a ship without the human element, will require that both
these functions are automated.
Gamini Lokuketagoda, lecturer in marine engineering at the
Australian Maritime College explains this further: “The term
autonomous sounds like that the ship is operating on its own.
However, in the path to fully autonomous running of ships we need
to go through three stages”.
These stages are outlined further in the boxed section. Basically
this suggests that there will be several critical stages to achieve
before we can truly say that a ship is autonomous.
The development of autonomous shipping will radically change
the role currently performed by marine engineers with some
suggesting that it will be re-classified into two or three different
roles in the future.
APPLICATIONS OF AUTONOMOUS VESSELS
Initially at least, autonomous vessels need to operate close to shore
of a country which is trialling them. From the viewpoint of the
design of the ship, it must be rather small to be operated in shallow
waters and this will require a small engine.
“Since the conventional reciprocating engines have many
moving parts, it is always better to go for electric motors which
have only one moving part, rotor, which make it more reliable,” Mr
Lokuketagoda says.
“Besides it frees up space in the engine room which can be
utilised to carry cargo. The space that is used for fuel can be used to
store batteries to power the propulsion motor.”
An example for this is the world’s first autonomous vessel Yara
Birkeland. This 120 TEU container ship is scheduled to be operated
as a semi-autonomous ship for a period before becoming fully
autonomous later.
Another aspect of un-manned operation is the legal implications
arising from accidents and pollution. At the start these can
be resolved if the ship operates in the flag state waters as only
one jurisdiction is involved. However, laws need to be drafted
globally for future unmanned operation of vessels across different
jurisdictions to address the indemnity of ship owners, operators,
coastal states, underwriters etc.
Mike Wilson, marine engineer and director, TMC Marine, says,
“I see fully autonomous or unmanned vessels developing in safe
sheltered waters routes initially on vessels such as small container
feeders or ro-ros.
“These routes normally have a base at each end of the
trading route with a level of autonomy for loading and
discharging already in operation. This would give way to
effective monitoring and maintenance of such vessels whilst
operating in relatively calm waters.
“Although a fully autonomous ferry has been built and proved
in Finland there has to be a certain level of manning onboard for
safety and insurance purposes.
“This is a concept vessel that proves autonomous vessels will be
a thing of the future however whilst there are vessels sailing with
a human element, especially in navigation, there will always be a
risk,” he says.
WHAT ROLE FOR MARINE ENGINEERS?
Mr Lokuketagoda says a semi-autonomous ships in its early stage
will have one marine engineer onboard depending on the number
of sailing days and how far it is from a coast. However, in the
second stage of remotely operated vessels, there won’t be any
AMC
50 October 2019
thedcn.com.au