[imagesource: Yara International]

The Yara Birkeland isn’t your average cargo ship.

For one thing, it’s a zero-emission ship, specifically designed to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides, such as greenhouse gases, and carbon dioxide.

What really sets it apart from the rest is that it also has the capacity to be fully autonomous, with its movements powered entirely by three onshore data control centres.

CNN reports:

If all goes to plan, the ship will make its first journey between two Norwegian towns before the end of the year, with a reduced crew on board to test the autonomous systems…

First conceptualized in 2017, the ship was created in partnership with technology firm Kongsberg Maritime and shipbuilder Vard. Capable of carrying 103 containers and with a top speed of 13 knots, it will use a 7 MWh battery, with “about a thousand times the capacity of one electrical car,” according to Jon Sletten, plant manager for Yara’s factory in Porsgrunn, Norway.

The Yara Birkeland was originally slated to sail from Herøya to Brevik last year, but the maiden voyage has been delayed.

Charging of the powerful battery will take place prior to setting sail, and the ship will then stop in at various harbours along the way.

In total, the single journey could replace around 40 000 truck journeys.

It’s good for the environment, and will also drastically reduce the costs associated with cargo ship transportation.

Initially, loading and unloading the ship will require humans, but according to Sletten, all loading, discharging, and mooring operations, including berthing and unberthing the vessel, will also eventually operate using autonomous technology.

Image: Yara International

That will involve developing autonomous cranes and straddle carriers — vehicles that place containers onto ships.

One crewless cargo ship on shorter journeys is doable, but we are some way from this becoming the norm.

Navigating in tighter spaces like harbours and ports could still be an issue (nobody wants another Suez Canal fiasco), and Rudy Negenborn, a maritime and transport technology professor, says technological advancements are still needed:

…there are many challenges to overcome before autonomous ships can be used for commercial long sea journeys…

Image: Yara International

Negenborn adds that without a crew onboard to carry out maintenance checks, autonomous ships would need built-in self-diagnosing systems with the ability to detect and fix problems, or call for human assistance.

So crewless cargo ships are a thing, but they’re nowhere near totally transforming the industry as we know it.

We’ll let somebody else worry about implementing further artificial intelligence on cargo ships, in the same way that we let South African company Berry & Donaldson handle all the logistics involved in getting cargo from A to B.

[source:cnn]