The Danish Maritime Authority (DMA) has taken a step toward the masterless ships as it is launching a pre-study on autonomous ships together with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
The cooperation between the parties has an aim to increase the common knowledge base and to set the preliminary frames so that the development and use of unmanned ships can come about in an appropriate manner.
“This is a really interesting area and, in the short term, the technology can be used to make our ships safer and more efficient,” Minister for Business and Growth Troels Lund Poulsen, said.
“In the longer term, research in autonomous ships may become a great advantage for Blue Denmark. The global maritime sector is faced with a number of challenges that will also be considered during next week’s Danish Maritime Days, and this technology could turn out to be part of the solution,” he added.
The planned pre-study will be carried out under the DTU project on research-based maritime consultancy which is financed by the Danish Maritime Fund.
The Danish Maritime Authority wants to carry out a wide cooperation project on the development of masterless ships, which is based on the positions of strength of Blue Denmark within shipping, safety and the environment, energy efficiency, technology development and maritime competences.