The path towards unmanned shipping: We are happy to announce, that MUNIN will make a contribution to the innovative Autonomous Ship Symposium in Amsterdam. This three-day conference will bring together ship designers, fleet owners, naval architects, classification societies, equipment manufacturers and maritime research organisations to discuss and debate the technological, regulatory and legal developments necessary to make autonomous and unmanned ships a reality. It will cover not only the challenges of testing and developing autonomous maritime technology, but also the legal implications, the potential economic benefits for fleet owners, safety and security issues and, most importantly, how to develop a universal regulatory framework.

Tuesday 21 June

09:25 – Keynote: Autonomous navigation – results from the MUNIN unmanned vessel testbed by Hans-Christoph Burmeister, Group Leader “Sea Traffic and Nautical Solutions”, Fraunhofer Center for Maritime Logistics and Services CML

Thursday 23 June

09:50 – Simulation-augmented manoeuvring system to support autonomous ships from the shore by Knud Benedict, professor and head of ISSIMS Institute, Hochschule Wismar/Institute ISSIMS, GERMANY

13:55 – Design challenges and opportunities for future unmanned ships by Ørnulf Jan Rødseth, Senior Scientist, MARINTEK Dep. Maritime Transport Systems

14:20 – Predictive maintenance for autonomous ship – emerging trends in Industry 4.0 by Harald Rødseth, PhD candidate, NTNU, NORWAY

Please find more details about the MUNIN-contribution here!

The Transport Research Arena is the most important transport research event in Europe, gathering every two years the key stakeholders:  researchers, experts, operators, industry and policy-makers. This year´s main theme will be “MOVING FORWARD – Innovative Solutions for Tomorrow’s Mobility”.

Hans-Christoph Burmeister, Group Leader ‘Sea Traffic and Nautical Solutions’ at Fraunhofer CML, will be panelist in the STA2 Strategic Session on Human Factors, Safety and Acceptability in Automation, representing a maritime view on the topic based on the results of the MUNIN project. The session will bring together researchers, industry representatives, operators and users to address the challenges of a future transport system where automation can bring its added value in different use cases, either at urban level or for long distance transport. It will take place on Tuesday, 19 April 2016, from 1:15 pm to 2:45 pm.

Find out more about the conference here.

„Integrated Ship’s Information Systems“ are recognized to be effective means in order to enhance safety and efficiency of the maritime traffic system. They are used e.g. onboard of ships, at vessel traffic as well as fleet service centers to analyze situations, improve awareness, support decision making up to management processes. Focus of the conference is on approaches and solutions ensuring the proper provision and utilization of such information. In this context of practical experiences, using new information systems will also be discussed taking into account the role and the needs of humans in an environment with increasing load of information. In addition the conference will also provide up-to-date information about ongoing activities, project results and applications related to information systems and their harmonization within the e-navigation period aged 12 years. Furthermore ISIS is also an excellent platform to present advanced approaches for GREEN NAVIGATION and UNMANNED SHIPS as well as for further future concepts.

The Symposium will focus on:

• Sea Survey Technologies and Challenges
• Technology and training – Supporting the Mariner
• Infrastructure – Critical BRM and Safety Concepts
• Safe Navigation in Port Entrances
• Improved reliability, resilience and integrity of navigational information
•  Autonomous Ship Technologies

Authors are invited to submit papers on any of the main topics for consideration by the Programme Committee till 15th April 2016. The Conference Programme and Registration Form will be published a few months prior to the event on the Website.

The Future of Unmanned Vessels will be addressed at The Maritime CIO Forum in Rotterdam on September 29^th 2015 at 17:20:

Autonomous and unmanned vessels are seen as a key element for a competitive and sustainable European shipping industry in the future.  But what is the future of shipping? Are unmanned and autonomous shipping feasible – and are they desirable?  The EU-supported research project MUNIN has recently completed its activities and the coordinators will present the main conclusions.

• Why do we need the unmanned ship?  The application areas, how it will look, the costs and the benefits

Hans-Christoph Burmeister, Group Leader “Sea Traffic and Nautical Solutions”, Fraunhofer Center for Maritime Logistics and Services CML

• How do make the unmanned ship feasible? What are the obstacles and how do we propose to solve them?

Ørnulf Jan Rødseth, Senior Scientist, MARINTEK Dep. Maritime Transport Systems

• Followed by an open floor Q&A on the Future of Unmanned Vessels

Read more!

This year’s London Branch Conference of The Nautical Institute will focus on Autonomous Ships – What does the future hold?. It takes place in the Novotel Hotel, Bristol, from September 25^th to 26^th 2015. A keynote speech on the MUNIN project will be made by project co-ordinator Hans-Christoph Burmeister, Fraunhofer CML. The presentation gives an overview of current developments regarding autonomous navigation. It describes the MUNIN unmanned vessel test-bed and addresses three main questions: What prototypes are developed and what still needs to be done? How will technology be tested? How will safety and efficiency gains be assessed?

You can find the conference programme here.

Lately, unmanned shipping has become one of the hot topics in the maritime world. Various stakeholders are getting increasingly involved and innovation is taking up pace.

But how can unmanned ships become reality?
Will they be commercially successful?
And what time frame must be considered?

Nor-Shipping is the perfect spot to answer these questions. On June 3^rd 2015 from 10:00 to 15:00, world leading maritime innovators present their visions of the prospective unmanned ship and experts from the domains of maritime law and insurance share their views on present legal constraints and how these can be resolved.

You can find the invitation here. Further details along with an agenda and the list of speakers are available now:

We are looking forward to receiving your non-committal registration until May 27^th 2014 at: munin_norshipping@cml.fraunhofer.de

Please click here for more information on the Nor-Shipping trade fair.

WHAT WILL BE THE FUTURE OF SHIPPING? Is unmanned and autonomous shipping feasible? – and is it desirable? These questions will be addressed at the MUNIN final event. The Munin concept will be demonstrated in a number of live test scenarios, short-term application potentials will be presented and long-term perspectives will be discussed.

We are happy to announce that the MUNIN final event will take place in Hamburg from June 10^th to 11^th 2015.

You can find the invitation here. Further details along with an agenda are available now:

For pre-registration, email us to: munin_workshop@cml.fraunhofer.de
Deadline for registration is June 3^rd 2015.

We are very much looking forward to your participation!

The Digital Ship is the commercial maritime world’s authority on satellite communications, software, navigation technology and computer based training. This year’s event in Hamburg on March 18 to 19, 2015 will focus on issues around innovation, efficiency and smart strategies.

Hans-Christoph Burmeister, Group Leader “Sea Traffic and Nautical Solutions” of the Fraunhofer CML will present the latest results from the MUNIN project and talk about autonomous technologies for unmanned cargo ships at 16:15 on March 18, 2015.

Find out more about the conference here.

The Unmanned Systems Expo 2015 (TUSExpo) takes place from February 4 to 6, 2015 in Den Haag, Netherlands. Alongside TUSExpo, the TUSE conference addresses developments in Air, Water and Ground. On February 6 from 09:30 to 11:00 Hans-Christoph Burmeister, Fraunhofer CML, will give the presentation  “Autonomous technologies for unmanned cargo ships – Results from the MUNIN project“.

The conference programme can be found here.

For the third time in a row MUNIN will be present when the international e-Navigation community meets at the e-Navigation underway conference onboard the ferry M/S Pearl Seaways traveling Copenhagen – Oslo – Copenhagen. All days from January 27 to 29, 2015, the exhibition booth can be visited including a mock-up of the MUNIN Shore Control Center and the Autonomous Navigation System with a livelink to simulators in the “Commodore Lounge”. In addition, Hans-Christoph Burmeister, Fraunhofer CML, shortly refers to the integration of the MUNIN testbed in his presentation “The European Maritime Simulation Network: planned and possible future uses“ on January 28.

We are looking forward to meeting you at our exhibition booth!

Find out more about the conference here.

The MTEC 2014 (International Maritime and Port Technology and Development Conference) will be held from October 27 to 29, 2014 in Trondheim, Norway. On Tuesday, October 28, from 11:00 to 12:30 Session 5 will be dedicated to unmanned vehicles and the MUNIN project. The MUNIN project will be addressed in the following two presentations:

• Hans-Christoph Burmeister, Wilko Bruhn (Fraunhofer CML)
  Designing an autonomous collision avoidance controller respecting COLREG
• Ørnulf Rødseth, Åsmund Tjora (Marintek)
  A risk based approach to the design of unmanned ship control systems

Find out more about the conference here.

MUNIN aims to develop and verify a concept for an autonomous ship. Short-term applications of autonomy refer to enhanced shore-support and automated lookout as well as increased maritime safety, efficiency and reliability. Thus, MUNIN will be present with a workshop at the SMM (Shipbuilding, Machinery & Marine Technology – International Trade Fair) on September 10^th 2014 from 09:00 to 13:00 in Hamburg.

Find out more about SMM Hamburg here.

In the workshop on the project’s “Short-term Application“ the following topics will be addressed:

• Waterborne TP Strategic research agenda: The autonomous ship (SEA Europe)
• Introduction to unmanned vessel activities (Fraunhofer CML)
• Rolls-Royce approach towards unmanned vessels (Rolls-Royce)
• Unknown waters: Public view on unmanned vessels (MARINTEK)
• Navigational shore-support: A new perspective (Chalmers Technical University)
• Harsh weather operation: Increased safety and efficiency (Fraunhofer CML)
• Enhanced lookout through sensor systems (Aptomar AS)
• How to assure engine propulsion reliability (Hochschule Wismar)

You can find the agenda including information regarding the venue here.

We are looking forward to your non-committal registration until August 31^st, 2014!
Please send your registration to munin_workshop@cml.fraunhofer.de.

This year, the 13th International Conference on Computer Applications and Information Technology in the Maritime Industries (COMPIT) will be held in Redworth/UK. On Wednesday, 14^th May 2014, there will be the following four presentations about the MUNIN project:

• 08:55h Thomas Porathe (Chalmers TU)
  Remote Monitoring and Control of Unmanned Vessels – The MUNIN Shore Control Centre
• 09:20h Laura Walther, Hans-Christoph Burmeister, Wilko Bruhn (Fraunhofer CML)
  Safe and Efficient Autonomous Navigation with Regards to Weather
• 09:45h Harald Rødseth, Brage Mo (Marintek)
  Maintenance Management for Unmanned Shipping
• 10:10h Ørnulf Rødseth, Åsmund Tjora (Marintek)
  A System Architecture for an Unmanned Ship

The papers are available online in COMPIT’s proceedings.

You can find more information about the conference if you follow this link: http://www.compit.info/

Once again the international e-navigation community will meet at the e-Navigation underway conference. It will take place on the ferry M/S Pearl Seaways, Copenhagen – Oslo – Copenhagen, from January 28 to 20, 2014. This year the conference will focus on Waypoints beyond the Strategy Implementation Plan. In this regard, the MUNIN project itself and opportunities provided by it to promote the implementation of prioritised e-navigation solutions will be addressed. Hans-Christoph Burmeister, Fraunhofer CML, and Ørnulf Jan Rødseth, MARINTEK, will give the presentation Beyond the e-Navigation implementation plan: Development towards the unmanned merchant vessel? on January 29 at 14:40. As in 2013, the MUNIN project will additionally have an exhibition during the whole time of the conference.

If you are interested to get in touch with us on this occasion send an email to info@unmanned-ship.org or just visit us at our stand. We are looking forward to many interesting discussions!

The programme can be found here.

The Public MUNIN and Marine Autonomy Workshop will take place at MARINTEK in Trondheim, Norway, on August 30^th, 2013 from 9:00 to 13:00. In the workshop on applications of autonomy in the marine industry the following topics will be addressed:

• AMOS Centre of Excellence
• Ocean Space Centre
• Seatonomy
• Merchant ship
• Surface surveillance
• Aquaculture
• Environmental surveillance
• Offshore intervention

You can find detailed information on the agenda and registration here.

We are looking forward to your registration until August 25^th, 2013!

The OCEANS conference, jointly sponsored by the Marine Technology Society (MTS) and the Oceanic Engineering Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE/OES), is a major international forum for scientists, engineers and responsible ocean users to promote, disseminate and exchange their knowledge, ideas, applications and scientific-technical advances in Oceanic Engineering and Marine Technology. One of the addressed topics is ROV & AUV Technology, which is addressed by MARINTEK’s presentation “Communication Architecture for an Unmanned Merchant Ship” that has been produced together with Chalmers Technical University and Fraunhofer CML based on the latest MUNIN results.

The proceedings are published in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library and the paper can be found here.

You can find more information about the conference if you follow this link: http://www.oceans13mtsieeebergen.org

This year, the 12th International Conference on Computer Applications and Information Technology in the Maritime Industries (COMPIT) will be held in Cortona/Italy. On Wednesday, 17^th April 2013, there will be a presentation held by Dr. Thomas Porathe from the Chalmers Technical University about the MUNIN project in general and MUNIN’s Shore Control Center. The paper, which has been produced together with Fraunhofer CML and MARINTEK, is available online in COMPIT’s proceedings.

You can find more information about the conference if you follow this link: http://www.compit.info/

For the third consecutive year the international e-Navigation community will meet on board a ferry between Copenhagen and Oslo. E-Navigation Underway 2013 takes place from January 29 to 31, 2013. The MUNIN project will be represented with an information poster on this year’s event.

If you are interested to get in touch with us on this occasion send an email to info@unmanned-ship.org or just visit us at our poster. We are looking forward to many interesting discussions!

You can find more information about the conference if you follow this link.