AsiaTech

MOL pioneering augmented reality to help seafarers

Japan’s Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) continues to beat its own urgent path towards autonomous ships.

MOL today signed an agreement with Furuno Electric and MOL Techno-Trade to jointly develop a system that supports ship operation during voyages using augmented reality (AR) technology.

In this project, information, such as other ships sailing around the vessel and landmarks like buoys at sea, can be shown on tablets and other displays, based on data from the Automatic Identification System (AIS). Images of landscapes taken from the bridge can also be shown on the same tablets, and these images will overlap with AR to provide visual support to crewmembers operating ships and keeping watch during voyages.

MOL is looking at ways to overlap displays of obstacles taken by radar, adding an obstacle zone by target (OZT), which is an algorithm to prevent collisions between vessels, and supplementing displays of obstacles using image recognition technologies to expand such functions.

Throughout 2017 MOL has announced a raft of initiatives in line with its smart ship pioneering campaign.

 

Sam Chambers

Starting out with the Informa Group in 2000 in Hong Kong, Sam Chambers became editor of Maritime Asia magazine as well as East Asia Editor for the world’s oldest newspaper, Lloyd’s List. In 2005 he pursued a freelance career and wrote for a variety of titles including taking on the role of Asia Editor at Seatrade magazine and China correspondent for Supply Chain Asia. His work has also appeared in The Economist, The New York Times, The Sunday Times and The International Herald Tribune.
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