Aronnax

 This is our last episode before a summer break, and we have the last of the three episodes looking at the development of autonomous ships and autonomous vessel systems.

We have heard about the commercial projects and the development of international regulations earlier, but not all the technologies on autonomous vessel systems are bound for vessels that need to company with the international regulations that have been written by the International Maritime Organisation. There are many drones, and autonomous systems that have, and still are being developed for research and military space.

So in this episode we will look at the startup market, and what is happening to create the link between innovation and commercial reality.

I also have the second half of my interview with Brett Phaneuf, the American behind the Mayflower project that will send an IBM powered autonomous ship to resail the route of the original Mayflower, which sailed from Plymouth UK to Plymouth, USA 400 years ago.

 Now, autonomous systems seem to eb growing in popularity, and certainly have captured the public imagination.

So, what do we mean about autonomous technology? Nick Chubb, founder and CEO at the research consultancy Thetius in the UK recently published a report on the autonomous vessel market.

So I asked him to explain the potential market and where the growth will come. We also talked which countries are taking the lead in autonomous start-up systems for research and development

He talked about the US and Israel, and it is to Israel that we look. The country has an extremely buoyant startup market where backing is available for business to business solutions, and one nexus for shipping and maritime startups in the country is the Dock Innovation Hub, a startup accelerator that has now become a venture capital fund, backing the maritime startups that it bringing into its ecosystem. In June the Dock launched a call to find some autonomous system startups to meet the demands of two of its corporate clients.

These two clients are ThyssenKrupp’s marine systems division, and a subsidiary of the same company called Atlas Elektronik. Both are based in Germany. These companies are already well now military and maritime systems developers, with a history in warfare and naval technologies, remote sensing and increasingly automation. Atlas Elektronik has already developed autonomous minesweeping which it now supplies to the British Royal Navy.

They have teamed up with the Dock to find new technologies and startups that address a range of challenges. They launched the call in June this year, and hopeful startups have until August to send in applications based on a range of different technology needs that are being sought.

This then is a good chance to get a feel for the autonomous systems market, and where the ideas are coming from.

I spoke to Nir Gartzman, which is the chief Operating Office at the Dock in Israel to find out how many startups he thinks there are and why large corporates with existing expertise in developing innovative systems would go looking for startups?

And the episode ends with the second half of my recent chat with Brett Phaneuf. Brett is in charge of the Mayflower Autonomous Ship Project which has built an autonomous unmanned trimaran style vessel that will use IBM software – algorithms. Artificial intelligence. As well as sensing technologies to sail later this year from Plymouth, England, to Plymouth USA. Yes, the same two ports that the Mayflower vessel sailed between with the mostly Dutch and English pilgrims 400 years earlier.

My interview with him went beyond the actual voyage and to what he thinks the voyage will achieve and change things both for science and the technology and use of autonomous systems.

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This is the second of our short series of Aronnax episodes looking at the evolution of autonomous ships and surface vessels in the shipping and ocean space. .

Now this podcast looks at all things maritime and related to the oceans, how we use it – and try not to abuse it – and how we are likely to use technological advances to make it better.

Within this there are the developments of autonomous systems, ships or unmanned craft.

We looked at some of the commercial factors in the first episode. And tied up with this is the role of seafarers and their future training for operations both on the vessel and off.

So in this episode I am looking at the regulations and how they MAY need to change.

We are not talking today about the smaller autonomous platforms sailing or likely to sail across the seas performing scientific work such as measuring ocean and atmospheric temperatures and environmental conditions, or underwater craft used by ocean industries.

The focus here is on the ship’s crew on cargo ships.

Guests on the episode include Henrik Tunfors from Sweden's Transport Agency wo is overseeing a scoping exercise of international safety regulations to see how autonomous and unmanned systems can be fitted in, Ørnulf Rødseth from SIntef Ocean and Pia Meling from Massterly a company which is already looking at crew training issues as it prepares to assume responsibility of the Yara Birkeland.

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There's a lot of talk about autonomous and unmanned planes, trains, cars and rockets, and in the marine sphere a lot of talk about unmanned autonomous ships. In the first of three episodes Craig Eason talks to experts about current developments to assess where the market currently stands and what it all means.

In the first episode he e-meets Pia Meling from Massterly- the manager of the Yara Birkelend project - and Ørnulf Rødseth at SINTEF Ocean a research group in Norway, to talk about commercial developments, and he talks to Brett Phaneuf the energy behind the Mayflower project which will send an autonomous vessel across the Atlantic 400 years after the original vessel made its historic voyage from Plymouth to Plymouth.

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Knut Ørbeck Nilssen,head of DNV GL Maritime and Madadh MacLaine, secretary general of the Zero Emission Ship Technology Association talk to Craig Eason about the role of LNG as a transition fuel towards a decarbonised shipping future, with comments from Brian Østergaard Sørensen at MAN ES about fuel systems and the future diesel engine.

Plus Thetius CEO Nick Chubb offers his insights to the latest technology trends.

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The EU announced its funding to get the bloc out of the Covid-19 induced recession, and it includes speeding the hydrogen roapmap.

However as the Climate Bonds Initiative has its draft low carbon shipping criteria out for consultation, SEA-LNG, which promotes LNG as a marine fuel, wants it to reconsider its non-inclusion of LNG carriers saying shipping can't wait 10 years for hydrogen economies and ammonia fuel to become mature enough. It wants LN to be seen as a transition not as a dead end in the decarbonisation debate.

IN this episode of Aronnax I hear from UCL Energy Institutes Dr Tristan Smith again, as well as Peter Keller, chairman of SEA LNG about the group's concerns abut the road being taken by shipping

We end with an update from Nick Chubb at Thetius on some of the maritime technology stories that have grabbed his attention.

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A report was issued this year estimating the investment needed to decarbonise shipping at about $1.2tr between 2030 and 2050. The work was conducted by UMAS (University Maritime Advisory Services) in the UK for the Copenhagen based Global Maritime Forum.

One of the key points was that this figure does ot apply as much to what shipowners will need to invest, but what needs to be invested into creating a fuel supply chain for a carbon free fuel such as Ammonia. Dr Tristan Smith Reader in Energy and Shipping at the UK's University College London was behind the report. He was also part of the advisory team for a set of criteria published by the Climate Bonds Initiative that has been developing criteria for different industries so investors know what to look for when seeking investments that are risk free.

In this episode of Aronnax we begin the journey into financing the transformation of shipping by talking to Dr Smith about the $1.2 trillion decarbonisation journey and to Climate Bonds Initiative's CEO Sean Kidney about how a climate bond for shipping could be defined and how it could become influential.

The episode ends with Nick Chubb, founder of Thetius, giving a run down of the weeks biggest tech news.

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Behavioral economics, the understanding of what makes people tick, and getting them to make the right decisions, is not exactly new, and in politics, not always welcome. But when it comes to openly encouraging us to make decisions that have a positive impact on the environment then it certainly gets attention. One UK-based startup company Signol has taken this approach and is applying it to shipping having already proven its case in aviation.

Here we here from Signol co-founder Dan White.

We also have our regular contribution from Nick Chubb, founder of Thetius on the last week's activity in the technology space, and its not all good news.

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While a return to the days of sailing vessels taking cargo around the world sounds romantic, it is also unrealistic. The great sails of old were no where near as efficient as ships are today. However with shipping being forced down a decarbonisation road, it is likely that some modern alternatives will be part of the mix of fossil fuel free solutions.

Many of the solutions that have been demonstrated so far are retrofitted onto ships. There are few newbuild vessels with a wind assist technology installed. In this episode of Aronnax we look at the need for a holistic approach to wind assist solutions. We hear from BAR Technologies which has taken learning and systems from the high octane competitive America's Cup racing, from the Airbus-backed kite solution Airseas, as well as form a young consultancy Blue Wasp, with the industries first Phd graduates in wind assist technologies

Nick Chubb from Thetius also gives his round up of the start up and technology space over the last week.

You can find me at [email protected]

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The global effort to significantly lower the amount of man-made carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases has seen a lot of government-backed collaborative efforts in recent years. In the shipping maritime and ocean spaces this has been somewhat fragmented, with different international agencies taking on different responsibilities.

The UN's shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization, recently announced an internal reform that has led to the creation of a new partnerships and projects department that will see it reach out to both industry and international funding mechanism and agencies to expand this effort.

Head of the new department is Jose Matheickal who's job will be, among other things, to keep an eye on research and development of innovative ideas that can help wean large ships off CO2 emitting fuels.

In his first interview since the IMO announced this significant new strategy to increase its collaborative work, Jose Matheickal talks to Fathom World's Craig Eason on how he sees funding and ideas coming together.

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Global trade is largely based on just-in-time, lean.supply chains with goods shipped around the world as they are needed. The Covid-19 lockdowns have brought this into stark relief. It also raises the profile of the ships crews that are needed to keep the ships going that keep these ships going. There are stories of crews being forced to stay on board and work much longer than they should, which will impact mental health and abilities, as well as crews finding themselves off a ship, but stranded in the countries where they disembarked because there is no way for them to go home.

Fathom World editorial director Craig Eason talks to the CEO of the Human Rights at Sea advocacy group, David Hammond about the cases he has hear about, as well as delves into how efforts hre being made to repatriate stranded crews.

Part of this podcast comes from a recording from a live stream of the "It's all About Shipping" webinar cast by Gina Panayiotou

Voices in this episode:

David Hammond, CEO, Human Rights at Sea

Dorothea Ioannou, Chief Commercial Officer, American P&I Club

Anna Vourgos, Aphentrica Marine Insurance Brokers

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