Autonomous and Remote Navigation Trial Project

[8] In September 2019, Sitronics KT signed with the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation the 4,5 MUSD R&D contract "The unmanned navigation for merchant fleet"[9] supporting the trial project.

Meanwhile, software solutions were tested ashore using simulators, experimental equipment was manufactured and installed onboard of four vessels under the supervision of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping.

[13] In February 2021, Rosmorport unveiled the first video confirming the start of the second stage of the trial operation: use of automatic and remote control of ships in real conditions under the supervision of the crew.

In February 2022 Russia reported to the IMO on ARNTP results including details of 28 commercial voyages made in 2021 with use of remote and autonomous control (MSC 105/INF.12).

The Sensor Fusion Module (SFM) integrates, synchronizes, and validates navigational data from various sources such as the radar, AIS, positioning, compass, weather station, etc., and the optical system.

These detailed rules are provided as per clear official recommendations from the Russian Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport for automatic collision avoidance systems.

The ANS Client integrates all the data from mandatory and additional electronic charts (such as ICE or SAT images) as well as any other available information and presents it via human interfaces that are similar to ECDIS.

Augmented Reality (an image with additional indicative information) and even completely virtual models (in case of poor visibility or problems with the communication channel between the remote control and the vessel) may well become common everyday tools of navigators in the near future.

Currently CMS allows support through human control or follows a given trajectory with high accuracy while taking into account existing weather conditions and the ship model.

Internal CCTV provides various tasks like indoor video recording, automatic control over the condition of rooms (movement, change of geometric parameters, etc.

In accordance with a-Navigation approach, to ensure the widespread use of MASS in real conditions, they must fully enforce the implementation of all existing management functions provided for by the current international regulation for the ship's crew.

Based on this approach the project participants have developed several legal documents: In December 2020, the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping issued the Approval in Principle for the complex of a-Navigation systems[29] This article incorporates text by Industry Association MARINET available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license.