Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) is deploying artificial intelligence to keep onboard machinery in good order. Tokyo-based K Line has partnered with compatriot yard Kawasaki Heavy Industries as well as Preferred Networks to develop a marine machinery operation support system to keep tabs on machinery failures, diagnostics and condition-based maintenance, based on data analytics.
The marine artificial intelligence system will be implemented both onboard and in the cloud. The one onboard learns the vessel’s operation data and uses them to diagnose on a real-time basis. The one in the cloud system periodically collects the data accumulated on each vessel, and centrally uses them for further learning, allowing itself to become smarter and offer failure prediction and diagnostics as well as operational support.
K Line said the new system was the latest step in the shipping line’s advance to creating autonomous vessels, something other Japanese shipping majors Mitsui OSK Lines and Nippon Yusen Kaisha are also pursuing.
