Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd (‘K’ LINE) has announced that its domestic Roll-on/Roll-off (RORO) vessel HOKUREN MARU No.2 has passed statutory ship inspections as an autonomous vessel.
The ship, which operates on a scheduled route between Kushiro and Hitachi, is the first RORO vessel in Japan to achieve this status.
The vessel obtained certification related to autonomous ships from ClassNK before subsequently passing a statutory ship inspection conducted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT).
This allows HOKUREN MARU No.2 to utilise autonomous navigation functions equivalent to Level 4 of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Levels of Driving Automation during commercial voyages.
The vessel is approximately 173 metres in length and 11,413 gross tonnes. It is used to transport agricultural products, including raw milk, from Kushiro Port in Hokkaido to Hitachi Port in Ibaraki Prefecture.
The project is part of the MEGURI2040 Fully Autonomous Ship Project (MEGURI2040), a grant programme administered by the Nippon Foundation. The initiative aims to achieve fully autonomous navigation through the retrofit of existing domestic coastal vessels. To pass the national statutory inspection, the ship had to demonstrate that its sensors and planners, which automatically plan collision-avoidance routes, operate correctly.
‘K’ LINE participated in the RORO Vessel Working Group for the project alongside Kawasaki Kinkai Kisen, Japan Radio Co., and YDK Technologies. The partners developed the Advanced Manoeuvring Assistant System (AMASYS), an integrated bridge officer support technology, to convert existing vessels into autonomous ships through retrofit.
The project is also supported by the Designing the Future of Fully Autonomous Ships Plus (DFFAS+) consortium, a group of 53 domestic companies in Japan working on technology for unmanned autonomous ships.
