Intelligent Shipping: The future is here

With the continuous development and breakthrough of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, it is expected that the shipping industry will move from the information age to the intelligent age. But many people don't seem to have a clear idea of when that day will come. As one industry expert says, "Smart shipping is a development process, it just started, and we are already in the process."

The age of smart shipping is coming faster than expected

"The smart revolution is a benign revolution in the way we produce, the way we live, and the way we think," said Robin Li, founder of Baidu, in his book The Smart Revolution: The Social, Economic and Cultural Changes that will usher in AI. The era we are living through is called the age of intelligence, big data, Internet of Things, blockchain, artificial intelligence... Whether you're familiar with them or not, they're on the rise and profoundly changing the industry. In this great change, traditional shipping has taken the initiative to embrace the era of intelligent shipping, transformation and upgrading to intelligent shipping.

From a global perspective, many countries, represented by Northern Europe, are actively promoting intelligent shipping research and plan to realize the actual operation of unmanned ships in the next 10 years. As early as the 98th meeting of the Maritime Safety Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 2017 (MSC 98), "autonomous unmanned vessels" was added to the agenda. Lim Ki-taek, Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), also expressed expectations and concerns about intelligent management of "people, ships and ports" on several occasions.

In recent years, China's early exploration of intelligent shipping has achieved initial results, and related construction and research are thriving. Xiamen, Yangshan, Qingdao and other ports have built fully automatic terminals. At the same time, many research institutes, universities and enterprises are also striving to deepen their efforts in the field of intelligent shipping. Chinese shipbuilding and shipping enterprises have joined hands with scientific research institutions and universities to carry out a series of project researches. "Dazhi", "Mingyuan" and "Kaizheng" have become the world's first bulk carrier, super large ore carrier and oil tanker to obtain the intelligent ship class symbol of China Classification Society. In 2015, China Classification Society (CCS) took the lead in launching the world's first code for intelligent ships. In recent years, it has successively launched inspection guidelines for Marine software, ship network system, intelligent integration platform, ship intelligent engine room and other aspects.

Intelligent shipping is a new shipping business form formed by the deep integration of the new generation of artificial intelligence technology and shipping elements. Geng Xiongfei, head of the Intelligent Shipping Research and Development Center of the Institute of Water Transport Science, Ministry of Transport, believes that with the development of intelligent shipping, freight ships will become unmanned, ports will become fully automated, and the object of supervision and protection will gradually change from human to intelligent machines. There is still a big gap between the current technological development level and the demand for extensive application of intelligent shipping. We predict that the next 15 years will be a critical period for the development of intelligent shipping, and the technological gap between various countries in the field of intelligent shipping will be formed and solidified. It is foreseeable that this revolution has already begun and will profoundly affect the patterns and organization of shipping for a long time to come.

The wave of smart shipping may come sooner than expected. Zhang Baochen, deputy director of the Water Transport Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, believes that there are mainly three reasons: First, the e-commerce of logistics promotes the reduction of logistics costs and the reconstruction of the global logistics system, and the increase of shipping rates has met the "ceiling"; Secondly, the shipping industry relies too much on human resources, and reducing staff is the main way to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Third, modern high and new technology provides technical support for ship freight unmanned, port automation, supervision and service modernization.

And smart shipping may be the first to break through in China. In December 2018, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Transport and the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense jointly issued the Action Plan for the Development of Smart Ships (2019-2021). In May 2019, the Ministry of Transport, the Cyberspace Administration of the CPC Central Committee, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the Guidelines on the Development of Intelligent Shipping. On July 25, 2019, the Ministry of Transport issued the Outline of Digital Transport Development Plan; The project "Key Technologies for Intelligent Navigation and Control of Ships Based on ship-Shore Collaboration", which is led by the Water Transport Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport and attended by 21 institutions with domestic advantages, is being organized and implemented. It can be seen that the Chinese government has begun to plan the future development of smart shipping in terms of top-level design. At present, China's technologies in intelligent engine room, intelligent energy efficiency management and other aspects have been verified by real ships. Once the intelligent navigation technology is conquered, it means that China will keep pace with other shipping powers in the era of intelligent shipping. Many foreign experts believe that with the advantages of the system and size of Chinese shipping enterprises, intelligent shipping is likely to achieve the first breakthrough in China.

Construction of new ecology of intelligent shipping

Intelligent shipping is a modern shipping system and a new shipping mode formed by the deep integration of traditional shipping elements with modern information, communication, sensing, artificial intelligence and other high-tech technologies. Recently, the Ministry of Transport jointly with the Cyberspace Administration of the CPC Central Committee, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Finance seven departments issued the "intelligent shipping development Guidance" clearly stipulated the basic elements of the five aspects of intelligent shipping, namely intelligent ship, intelligent port, intelligent navigation protection, intelligent shipping services and intelligent shipping supervision.

Because smart ships and smart ports are more concrete, and there are more research and development achievements in the past two years, you know more about them. Supervision, security and service are largely invisible, and the development of these three elements is not well understood. Geng said that from the perspective of the development of intelligent shipping system, intelligent navigation support should take the lead to provide support and conditions for the development and construction of smart ships and ports. Smart regulation should also be arranged in advance to better serve technological development.

From the perspective of building intelligent shipping, Xu Kai, director of the Big Data Lab of Shanghai International Shipping Center, believes that there is no problem of who comes first in these five aspects, which should be promoted synchronously and in multiple rounds of iteration. Geng believes that the five elements of intelligent shipping are closely related to each other. To build a reasonable and healthy intelligent shipping ecology, it is necessary to promote the coordinated development of these five elements. In this way, in addition to breaking through many key technologies such as perception, cognition, decision-making and interaction, a large number of engineering practices, pilot demonstrations and testing and verification are also needed.

The era of intelligent shipping is rapidly approaching, and the next 15 years is a key stage for the development of global intelligent shipping. As a new business form, the core definition of intelligent shipping lies in the deep integration of shipping elements with modern information, artificial intelligence and other high-tech technologies, with autonomous sailing ships as the core elements. In April 2018, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) held the 99th Maritime Safety Council (MSC) to sort out the relevant laws and regulations on surface autonomous vessels at sea (MASS), and the process of legalizing MASS was officially launched. From then on, ships can become intelligent, and ship engine room technology, energy efficiency management and other aspects can enter the autonomous process.

Intelligent navigation of ships also needs intelligent navigation protection, which plays the role of support and guarantee. Autonomous navigation requires shoreline support. Compared with the current situation, the era of intelligent shipping will have higher requirements and standards for navigation accuracy, communication bandwidth and network security. Smart shipping also imposes new requirements on ports and shipping services. Port intelligentization originates from automation and informationization, and the representative case is fully automated container terminal. Next, big data, artificial intelligence and other technologies will be further applied in the production management of the port. Full automation and intelligent operation of bulk cargo will be the next major development direction of smart port. After major changes have taken place in ships, shipping insurance and ports, the modes, methods and means of shipping supervision should also adapt to the changes in shipping factors and promote the healthy development of each other. Future shipping regulation will face both manned and unmanned ships. While unmanned cargo ships are a major trend, the need for unmanned ships for other purposes is not necessarily the same.

What intelligence finally promotes is intelligent shipping service, and its most significant feature is reflected in the platformization of shipping service transaction and shipping auxiliary service transaction. It mainly includes two forms: Party B's platform built by shipping service providers and shipping auxiliary service providers, and Party C's platform operated by third parties other than service providers and service demander. The advantage of the platform is that it can avoid the problems of high cost in shipping service transactions and other links, as well as the defects of inadequate, untimely and highly dispersed shipping service information. It can be seen that these five aspects are interlinked and do not distinguish each other.

The era of smart shipping is not just separated by unmanned ships

If the ultimate realization of intelligent shipping is our goal, then we need to know what the effect of intelligent shipping is to achieve. In this regard, Xu Kai believes that the intelligent shipping phase should achieve at least six aspects of the effect. First, efficiency; second, flexibility; third, green; fourth, security; fifth, interconnection (or collaboration); and sixth, excellence. Just as we test a person's intelligence, we need to look at the person's practical problem solving ability. Similarly, the test of intelligent shipping also depends on how many problems it solves for the industry, and whether the ability to solve problems reaches a high level of intelligence. The six things I mentioned are specific metrics from a business perspective, that is, are you efficient enough, are you green enough, are you safe enough, etc. If we achieve good results in these aspects, we can say that it is intelligent, rather than just emphasizing the means to achieve intelligence.

The current discussion of smart shipping in the international shipping community seems to focus on a hypothetical end-state in which autonomous or unmanned vessels can sail instead of existing ships. This is a good thing for shipyards and Marine equipment manufacturers hoping to catch the public's eye, but if the industry focuses too much on the end result it will miss many important issues that really affect the development of smart shipping. In this regard, experts in the industry said that when IMO and the shipping industry consider smart shipping, more consideration should be given to the progress and development of shipping automation. As an emerging technology, smart shipping brings both opportunities and risks. For example, how people on board and shore have the necessary capabilities and skills to be able to use and manage intelligent systems to work efficiently; How shipyards and Marine equipment manufacturers can ensure efficient collaboration between ship digital automation systems and people.

Like the industrial revolution and Internet technology in the past, smart shipping will bring a completely new change to the shipping industry in the near future. Are business managers and industrial policy makers really ready for it? Industry experts said that one of the future shipping development direction is flexible, customized transport services. From the perspective of transportation supply, the next generation shipping system based on intelligent ships provides the technical possibility for such service. But more importantly, at the enterprise level, customer customized transportation services emphasize the deep understanding of customer logistics needs, and on this basis, design efficient, flexible and reliable transportation solutions. These are not necessarily the capabilities that enterprises will possess after the realization of intelligent shipping, but need us to have a forward-looking layout and accumulation from now on, including how to efficiently and accurately understand customer needs, how to design integrated logistics system and logistics solutions.

On the other hand, whether the improvement of soft power can be realized, such as the right of speech. Behind the alternation of many discourse rights is often the change of technical conditions. London's replacement of Rotterdam as an international shipping centre, for example, was largely a result of the first Industrial Revolution. If smart ships and digital shipping become the technological foundation for the next generation of shipping, how do we understand industry standards and legal guidelines under the new code of conduct? For example, how to view the problem of intelligent ship crew? For example, if two unmanned vessels are involved in a collision at sea, and the company's system is designed according to a set of accepted standards, how to define collision liability and liability for damages to third parties? It is reported that some European institutions have begun to discuss and study these issues tentatively. And the depth of understanding of these issues will greatly affect the industry discourse power under the next generation of shipping technology. But in China, these "virtual" problems seem to have attracted less attention.

Thus, it can be seen that intelligent shipping cannot only rely on the "savage growth" of technology, nor can it only emphasize intelligence. In addition to technological reform, it needs a profound revolution in the development concept, organizational management, operation mode and value service. The disruptive innovation in the industry was the container transportation 60 years ago. Since then, the shipping industry has embarked on the road of development relying on scale to reduce costs. A new round of disruptive innovation is inevitable. Undeniably, the appearance of intelligent ships makes the shipping industry look forward to the future with infinite hope. However, at the same time, it also reminds the industry of "a thousand miles without a single step". To realize intelligent shipping, there are still a lot of "groundwork" to be prepared for it.