LR and Samsung Heavy Industries Pen MOU for Autonomous Ship Design

MarineLink June 7, 2022

The certification was awarded on 7 June 2022 at Posidonia in Athens, Greece, in the presence of Jin-Taek Jung, SHI’s President & CEO and Nick Brown, LR Group CEO. (Photo: LR)

LR and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to develop an autonomous ready ship design to support maritime digitalization and the growing demand for operational benefits of increased autonomy.

SAS (Samsung Autonomous Ship) is an autonomous navigation system which integrates current navigation equipment, such as ECDIS with TCS (Track Control System), RADAR, CONNING, and remote controlled BMS, with SHI’s new SVISION system, using technology to eliminate human error which accounts for the majority of maritime accidents. SAS can be installed easily onto a ships system next to other software and evaluates collision risks around a vessel, whilst controlling the direction and speed of a ship in order to avoid objects.

Along with the MOU, LR will certify SHI’s SAS with new SVISION system used as part of the Autonomous ready ship design. SHI’s SVESSEL CBM (Condition Based Maintenance) which performs measurement and diagnosis tasks automatically on vessels, will also be certified as part of the Joint Development Project. This will support maintenance by providing remote fault detection of machinery.

LR’s role as part of the MOU will be to perform cooperative studies on autonomous systems in navigational autonomy, including commissioning procedures, guidelines for autonomous systems, verification, and validation activities. This will support SHI with the successful development and implementation of its autonomous system.

LR also announced the certification of SHI’s digitized electronic logbook system SVESSEL eLogbook at Posidonia 2022, replacing paper navigation logs with automated data entry from voyage, along with a Statement of Fact for SHI’s SVESSEL CII Solution that features real-time monitoring and reporting of CII in response to IMO (International Maritime Organization) greenhouse gas regulations.

Nick Brown, LR Group CEO, said, "Leading our industry’s transformation starts with partnerships like this that support the growing demand for operational benefits, such as improved efficiency, reduced workloads for crew and higher safety performance via increased autonomy. We are proud to work with Samsung Heavy Industries on the development and implementation of their autonomous capability."

Jin-Taek Jung, President & CEO, Shipbuilding Sales Engineering Team, SHI, said, "We’re pleased to collaborate with Lloyd’s Register on the development of Autonomous Ready Technologies. This long and good partnership from early Digital Transformation to the Autonomous Ready Technology is concrete and expected to be a major key to the evolution of maritime industries.