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Un-Manned Surface Vessels - USV

China has more than 18,000 kilometers of coastline and numerous rivers and lakes. At present, tasks such as water rescue, search and rescue, and monitoring are mainly completed by manned surface ships, which are faced with problems such as limited strength, high cost, low efficiency, difficult support, and the risk of casualties. There is a very urgent need for the unmanned watercraft system on the water.

Unmanned ships have the advantages of small size, high speed, low cost and no risk of casualties. They can perform tasks in dangerous areas or areas that are not suitable for dispatching manned ships, expand the scope of water operations of ships, and have high cost and efficiency. Therefore, it has become an important platform for performing search and rescue, reconnaissance, monitoring, archaeology, fire strike, ship escort, anti-mine and anti-submarine missions. The characteristics of unmanned ships are that they sail on the interface between air and water, and are difficult to control. Compared with other types of unmanned systems (unmanned aircraft , unmanned rail transit, and unmanned vehicles), their development lags behind.

At present, many enterprises, research institutions and universities have carried out the development of unmanned ships. The United States has the world's strongest maritime power, and is an international leader in research on unmanned ships. As early as 2007, the U.S. Navy formulated the "Navy USV Master Plan". In 2017, the US defense spending request decided to invest billions of dollars to focus on the development of unmanned ships, "planned to be used to monitor the islands and reefs built by China in the South China Sea." In 2018, the U.S. military released the latest "Integrated Roadmap for Unmanned Systems", which made an overall plan for the operational requirements, key technologies and interoperability of unmanned systems of various services.

Israel has unique advantages in the field of unmanned ships, and its "Protector" unmanned ship developed at the beginning of this century is the most typical. The ship is 11 meters long and has a speed of 40 knots. It has been deployed to the Israeli Navy and exported to countries such as Singapore. The "Katana" surface unmanned ship launched by Israel Aerospace Industries in early 2014 is also a representative model, with a length of 12 meters, a speed of 60 knots, and an endurance of 350 nautical miles. In addition, unmanned ships such as the "Silver Marlin" developed by the Israeli Ministry of Defense and the "Stingray" launched by Elbit also have a high level of technology.

Traditional maritime powers such as France ("ROAZ"), Germany ("STIPSI", etc.), Italy ("Charlie"), the United Kingdom ("Guard"), and Japan ("UMV-HO" series) are also researching unmanned ships Much progress has been made with applications. In 2016, the British Navy organized the "Unmanned Soldier" large-scale unmanned equipment deployment exercise on the west coast of Scotland, using 50 unmanned clippers to be responsible for tasks such as sea area exploration, monitoring intelligence collection, and fish detection. The European Defence Fund OCEAN2020 program showcases different types of unmanned platforms (such as fixed-wing, rotary-wing UAVs , unmanned ships and unmanned submersibles) interfacing with the command and control center of naval forces through satellite communication, enabling maritime surveillance and interception.

In China, unmanned ship technology has achieved rapid development in recent years. Chinese research on unmanned ships started relatively late, and in China the use of unmanned ships is still rare. On July 8, 2017, the "New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan" issued by the State Council made comprehensive deployment and specific plans for the development of artificial intelligence including autonomous control of drones and autonomous driving of vehicles, ships, and rail transit. On December 27, 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport, and the National Defense Science, Technology and Industry Administration jointly issued the "Smart Ship Development Action Plan (2019-2021)" to provide comprehensive guidance on the development plan of smart ships. On May 9, 2019, seven departments including the Ministry of Transport jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on the Development of Smart Shipping", which clarified the overall requirements, main tasks and safeguards for the cultivation and development of smart shipping, including smart ships.

Zhuhai Yunzhou Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Zhuhai Yunzhou) and some clipper manufacturers are more advanced in technology. Zhuhai Yunzhou has developed more than a dozen types of unmanned ships, such as the M80 for ocean surveying, with a length of 5.65 meters, a surface obstacle detection distance of 75 meters, a speed of 12 knots, and an endurance of 330 nautical miles.

Shenzhen Hesby Ship Technology Co., Ltd., a leading domestic clipper company, has developed a 6-13m series of monitoring, reconnaissance and combat unmanned ships on the basis of dozens of existing clippers. A typical example is the cooperation with Harbin Engineering University. The jointly developed "Tianxing 1" was the fastest unmanned ship in China at that time, with a length of 12.2 meters, a speed of more than 50 knots, and a cruising range of 1,000 kilometers. The "Seafly01" unmanned ship developed by Sifang Intelligent (Wuhan) Control Technology Co., Ltd. has a length of 10.25 meters, a speed of 45 knots, and a cruising range of 400 kilometers. Its shore-based monitoring platform is relatively advanced. The "Jinghai" series of unmanned ships developed by Shanghai University have been used for shallow sea topographic surveys. The typical model has a speed of 18 knots, and has achieved a track tracking error of less than 3 meters in level 3 sea conditions. It has won the second prize of the National Technology Invention Award.

Different units have carried out some application attempts in combination with different backgrounds. For example, Shanghai University and Zhuhai Yunzhou sent unmanned ships to participate in the Antarctic scientific expedition. Zhuhai Yunzhou, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Dalian Maritime University and Shanghai Jiaotong University have all announced many unmanned ships. Demonstration videos of ship formations, including the formation sailing of 81 unmanned ships in Zhuhai Yunzhou, the multi-vessel formation sailing of the Dongguan Research Institute of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, the multi-vessel formation sailing of Dalian Maritime University, and Shanghai Jiaotong University's long-sea rescue and multi-vessel formation sailing Multi-ship collaboration in the background of operations.

Ship intelligence may become the shipping industry. important development direction in the future. As one of the largest ocean shipping companies in China today, China Merchants Steamship is actively carrying out cutting-edge explorations in the fields of shipping and ship intelligence. Comprehensive analysis of meteorological, sea conditions, and voyage information enables ship route optimization, multi-scene auxiliary collision avoidance decision-making in open waters, and other functions, helping to avoid navigation safety problems caused by manual errors and missed operations, and reduce the incidence of marine accidents. Research on intelligent ship technology is one of the important ways for China's shipbuilding industry to adjust the industrial structure, seize the commanding heights of ship technology development, and enhance international competitiveness.

One of the key factors in the development of unmanned ships is the reliability of ship equipment . From the analysis of the reliability of the power plant and the current situation of ship design concepts and ship technology development, the biggest obstacle to unmanned engine room is the reliability of engine room equipment. The equipment serving the main engine and generator in the engine room is redundant and complex, and it is almost impossible to ensure that all equipment will not have problems during navigation. Under the current technical conditions, to achieve unmanned ships and unmanned engine rooms, designers must fundamentally change the design concept. Just imagine, if the ship does not have a propulsion diesel engine, a large number of equipment supporting the main engine can be omitted, and the overall reliability factor of the engine room equipment will be greatly improved.

There are several advantages of unmanned ocean-going cargo ships: First , safety . Unmanned ships sail according to the established navigation route, and conduct automatic navigation through the chart system and satellite navigation system, and there is no risk to the personal safety of seafarers. The second is to save labor costs and the cost of human equipment on ocean-going ships . Ocean-going unmanned ships need to be equipped with satellite positioning + AIS chart equipment of hundreds of thousands of yuan, unlike the current ocean-going ships that need to be equipped with millions of yuan of human communication equipment and safety life- saving equipment. The third is to improve the profitability of ocean freight companies and avoid all legal and illegal costs incurred by the crew.