Avikus, a self-driving ship subsidiary of Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, successfully autonomously navigated a cruise ship for the first time in Korea on June 16. (Photo: HHI Group)

Avikus, a self-driving ship subsidiary of Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) Group, has successfully autonomously navigated a ship for the first time in Korea.

Avikus is a self-driving ship company spun off from the first in-house venture firm of HHI Group. The company is poised to grow as a leader in advanced navigation assistance and autonomous navigation solution sectors.

Avikus said on June 16 the company successfully demonstrated the autonomous navigation of a 12-seat cruise ship in the Pohang canal area in Gyeongsangbuk-do without human involvement.

The canal area is 10 km long, but is narrow at just 10 meters wide, with a rough navigation environment filled with a cluster of ships in the inner and outer ports. KAIST, Korea Maritime & Ocean University and KT participated in the demonstration, led by Avikus.

During the event, Avikus showcased a full, autonomous navigation, ranging from departure of the cruise ship to return to port and docking by employing its state-of-the-art HiNAS (Hyundai Intelligent Navigation Assistant System) and HiBAS (Hyundai Intelligent Berthing Assistant System).

HiNAS automatically recognizes surrounding vessels through camera analysis via artificial intelligence (AI) to determine and alert the risk of collision based on augmented reality (AR).

Particularly noteworthy about this advanced navigation support system is that even when visibility is limited at night or by sea fog, it can analyze and provide comprehensive information, such as the location and speed of obstacles, using infrared cameras.

This latest collision-avoiding technology, adding to the group’s existing set of smart ship technologies, is accelerating HHI Group’s endeavors to take the lead in the autonomous ships market.

Back in 2017, the group launched its INTEGRICT-Smartship Solution (ISS), which collects and analyzes real-time information on vessel navigation for efficient energy management and route optimization. Since then, the group has won orders for ISS to be installed on about 150 ships.

Further, the group has recently completed the development of HiBAS (Hyundai Intelligent Berthing Assistant System), which provides a full view of the ship when berthing or clearing.

State-of-the-art navigation assistance systems such as sensors (LiDAR) based on laser for self-driving cars are used so that ships can autonomously cope with a variety of emergency cases such as sea weather, sea currents and appearance of ships.

LiDAR stands for ‘light detection and ranging’ and is a technique for measuring the distance of objects from a sensing device.
The principles used are very similar to RADAR but, with LiDAR, the radio waves are replaced by light ─ usually laser light.

The LiDAR system emits a beam of light that hits a target before being reflected and back to a sensor that is located close to the light source.

By measuring the time taken for the light to travel, and knowing the constant speed of light, the distance of the target can be calculated with a high degree of accuracy.

Avikus plans to upgrade technologies related to autonomous navigation and expand their applications to all passenger ships and cargo vessels.

To this end, the company plans to make a journey to cross an ocean through the world’s first autonomous navigation technologies in cooperation with Korean shipping companies in the second half of this year.

 
Avikus President Lim Do-hyung said, “We plan to commercialize the autonomous navigation of a leisure boat for the first time in the world.” Avikus will be reborn into a first mover in the autonomous navigation market, the ultimate destination of the future maritime mobility, through R&D and hiring of manpower, he said.

Figures, released by the global market survey firm Acute Market Reports, showed that the value of the autonomous navigation, related materials and equipment market is predicted to surge 12.6 percent in an annual average growth rate to $235.7 billion in 2028.