By Zeng Xiaoguang

In recent years, as the old shipbuilding power, Japan has been making efforts in the fields of unmanned and intelligent ships, in order to seize the market opportunity and reshape the new core competitiveness of Japanese shipbuilding industry. Judging from the domestic development of Japan, although there are not many large scientific research projects organized by the government, related enterprises and scientific research institutions have carried out a lot of research work on unmanned ships and intelligent ships.

As early as December 2012, 29 enterprises and units,including the Japanese shipbuilding Association,NK and so on jointly carried out the research on the“intelligent ship application platform” project. The study period of the project was from December 2012 to March 2015, and the research funds were 1.2 million dollars. The project aims to develop the ship intelligent information and control system, and by combining the common ship load monitoring system, such as the remote control, the ballast water management, the ship load power management, the electronic chart and so on,and through the remote data transmission technology,develop such functions as storing the operating data of the ship monitoring system, weather navigation,longitudinal optimization, host monitoring, condition monitoring, energy efficiency management and remote maintenance, etc.

At present, the platform has been installed on a ferry and a crude oil carrier in Japan. At the same time, the project team is also promoting the intelligent ship application platform to become a test version of the International Maritime Organization E- navigation strategy, and the standardization work such as system model, system security, data structure and other content in IMO, ISO,IEC and organizations of various other levels.

In the short term, NYK and MOL have carried out a lot of research work in the field of unmanned ships and intelligent ships. In addition, NK, Tokyo calculator Corporation, and Japan’s ancient Electric Co., Ltd. and other units have also developed a lot of work. In addition, according to relevant reports, Japanese shipbuilding companies including MOL and NYK plan to set up an unmanned commercial fleet.

From the development of unmanned ship and intelligent ship technology in Japan, it has spread from partial area to the overall, i.e. from research on some key systems and key technologies to the unmanned and intelligent ship, including the technology of the ship's internet of things, the integrated control technology of ship and shore, the technology of the ship's remote operation and maintenance, autonomous navigation technology and so on. In addition, the participation and even the leading role of user is also an important feature of the development of the unmanned ship and intelligent ship in Japan.