Unmanned ships are developing rapidly, and there are still five hurdles to pass before entering the "Jianghu"
Release time：2024-09-29click：0
During this year’s Two Sessions, “artificial intelligence” was included in the government work report for the third consecutive time. The introduction and emphasis of the new term “intelligence +” marks that artificial intelligence is becoming the core of a new round of technological change. At present, with the help of new artificial intelligence technologies, many traditional industries have ushered in changes and upgrades to new business formats and new models. Among them, in the field of transportation, with the "flying" drones and "ground-running" "Unmanned vehicles" are becoming more and more popular, and unmanned ships are gradually emerging.
On the Spring Festival Gala of 2018, our country showed the world a joint display of "sea, land and air" unmanned systems consisting of unmanned ships, unmanned vehicles and drones. It's amazing. It is understood that an unmanned vessel (USV) is a fully automatic surface robot that can sail on the water through satellite positioning and self-sensing without remote control. In recent years, with its significant application value in freight, scientific research, exploration, meteorology, coastal defense, etc., it has become one of the important trends in future ship development.
The era of unmanned ship navigation is accelerating
At present, drones and unmanned aerial vehicles are often discussed Like cars, unmanned ships are also frequently mentioned. Due to the huge application value and broad development prospects brought by unmanned ships, many countries and companies are accelerating the technology research and development of unmanned ships and actively deploying the development of unmanned ship-related industries, so that a "big" unmanned ship The "Age of Navigation" is quietly beginning.
It is reported that the United States is the first country to develop unmanned ships, and it has an advantage in the research and development of unmanned ship technology. During World War II, the U.S. military began to use unmanned surface vehicles equipped with guns and ammunition in the military field; by the early 2000s, the U.S. military had basically formed a combat-capable USV fleet along the coast; in 2016, the U.S.’s new Sea Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle The manned anti-submarine ship was successfully launched again, and it began to test the world's largest unmanned ship, developing at a rapid pace.
But in terms of the military application of unmanned ships, Israel is undoubtedly the leader. The "Protector" series of unmanned ships developed by the Ministry of National Defense have long been renowned for their excellent performance and have long been used in places such as the country's coast, the Persian Gulf and Singapore to conduct port and coastal patrols. In 2013, a new type of "protector" was released again. Its functions have been upgraded and its effectiveness has soared in intelligent coastal defense tasks. Its application has been favored by more and more countries.
In addition to the United States and Israel, countries such as the United KingdomMany countries, including China, Italy, Portugal, Germany, France, and Japan, are also developing unmanned ships. Among them, Australia is developing unmanned bulk carriers and hopes to achieve commercial use in 10 years; Japan is vigorously developing unmanned ships and plans to build a large fleet by 2025; Norway established an unmanned ship company last year; and Europe is also studying The operation regulations of unmanned ships are expected to normalize and stabilize their development.
In addition, for our country, although there is a big gap between the development of unmanned ships and foreign countries in recent years, it has also achieved certain results and progress.
For example, in 2013, Yunzhou sold the first water quality monitoring unmanned ship, and sold more than 70 ships domestically in one year; in 2017, my country also cooperated with a number of shipping industry companies and Organizations jointly established an unmanned cargo ship development alliance; in 2018, the Zhuhai unmanned ship offshore test site construction project was officially launched; in the same year, my country's first 500-ton unmanned ship was also successfully developed and launched, and it is expected to be commercialized in 2019. ....
In other words, whether it is other countries accelerating research and development and accelerating layout, or our country's formation of joint efforts to follow up at full speed, in the situation of chasing each other, no one can win. The era of development of people and ships is breaking through the waves and riding the wind. In the future, people are looking forward to the development trends of various countries, and the vast blue ocean of development is also very exciting.
There are various difficulties to overcome in the "jianghu"
Then, unmanned ships will truly usher in commercialization How long will it take?
From the current point of view, the existing unmanned ships do not really meet this title. To be more precise, they should be "intelligent ships". Unmanned ships are the final stage of the development of intelligent ships. To realize truly unmanned ships, intelligent ships must go through three stages of interconnection, system integration, and remote control before they can achieve final autonomous control.
At present, considering the additional risks that may arise due to current communication technology and automation control technology, most ships at home and abroad will be equipped with sufficient crew members to prepare for a failure in the ship's automation system. Ability to control ships. In other words, the development of unmanned ships is still in the first three stages of smart ships and is in the early stages of development.
In the early stages of development, unmanned ships naturally face various industry problems. For example, there are legal challenges: How to grant navigation rights, passage rights and other rights to unmanned ships under the existing legal framework? How to delineate jurisdictional rules and other aspects? And how to improve the definition of technical regulations and civil liability?
Another example is the economic challenge: Although unmanned ships can save crew-related facilities and equipment, they will have higher expenses in terms of initial and daily operation costs. At the same time, in order to establish shore base and other infrastructure for unmanned ships, a lot of manpower and financial resources will be invested, and the economic cost and burden will not be easy.
In addition, some key technologies of unmanned ships also need to be overcome; the impact of the new business formats brought by unmanned ships on industrial chain enterprises also needs to be considered; the development of unmanned ships has a negative impact on the crew. Job survival issues also need to be addressed; as well as network security issues brought about by unmanned ships, etc.
In short, the "jianghu" that unmanned ships have to navigate is not simple. If we want to have a long-term and stable future, we need to solve the above problems one by one!
