For many years, experts from Maritime Rolls Royce worked to solve the problem of the autonomous ship. But not alone, because RR employees were supported by engineers from Delatamarin, Inmarsat, DNV GL and NAPA. The scientific potential of the universities: VTT Aalto, Tampere University of Technology, University of Turku and Abo Akademi was also used. The Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA) project promoted the idea of unmanned ships.
Small unmanned units are also being built in Poland. Trials of small remotely controlled units manufactured in Poland were carried out in the port of Gdynia. These were ships designed and manufactured by Centrum Techniki Okrętowej and Hydrodron 1 developed by Marine Technology.
Autonomous ships are already sailing, and they were built by Polish engineers and in Polish enterprises, according to the conference “Autonomous ships – Inevitable reality at sea”. The conference was held at the Gdańsk University of Technology over two years ago. The conference was organized by the Baltic Sea and Space Cluster and the Space Sciences Commission of the Polish Academy of Sciences from Gdańsk, with the active participation of two faculties that make up today the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Ocean Engineering.
Conference participants presented solutions enabling the use of the potential of Polish science and industry in the production of unmanned watercraft using ICT and satellite technologies. Polish scientists, engineers and students do not stand out in this area, both in terms of design and production. They construct and use smaller surface and underwater units.
