Photo: Ocean Infinity
If we can picture zero-emission, autonomous cars on the roads, and electric air taxis with no pilots in the sky, then the same goes for maritime transportation. It’s a bit scary to think about mammoth ships crossing the oceans with literally no crew onboard, but it’s an important step in making shipping safer and more efficient in terms of workforce – just as important as cutting harmful emissions.
A commercial ship that’s entirely automated while also running on ammonia might sound like a distant project, yet it has recently come to life. It’s not even a single vessel, but an awe-inspiring fleet comprised of robotic, sustainable ships. It’s called the Armada (Spanish for “army”) and it’s being developed by Ocean Infinity, a maritime robotics company in the UK.
The grandiose project was announced last year and has now reached a milestone. The first two vessels in the future fleet have been delivered. The Armada 7801 and Armada 7802 have departed from Vietnam, where they were built at the Vard Vung Tau shipyard, with Norway as the destination. Here, they will be fitted with Ocean Infinity’s remote system and begin integration with the company’s Remote Control Center.
The 78-meter (256 feet) Armada won’t start operating as a fully-automated vessel right away. It will first stick to so-called “lean-crewed” operations. But it will eventually switch to 24/7 unmanned, onshore-controlled operations. Another innovative capability is the compatibility with 100% sustainable fuels, mainly ammonia.
The future fleet will boast a total of 15 ships, all able to operate with no crew onboard, while drastically cutting emissions through the use of ammonia.
Armada’s builder is one of the winners of the 2020 Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition launched by the UK government. The groundbreaking Armada project was the result of working together with prestigious partners such as the University of Oxford and the University of Southampton’s Marine and Maritime Institute.
Ocean Infinity also plans to establish a Marine Propulsion Test Facility where it will test the revolutionary Ammonia Marine Propulsion System (AMPS) for robotic ships.
The grandiose project was announced last year and has now reached a milestone. The first two vessels in the future fleet have been delivered. The Armada 7801 and Armada 7802 have departed from Vietnam, where they were built at the Vard Vung Tau shipyard, with Norway as the destination. Here, they will be fitted with Ocean Infinity’s remote system and begin integration with the company’s Remote Control Center.
The 78-meter (256 feet) Armada won’t start operating as a fully-automated vessel right away. It will first stick to so-called “lean-crewed” operations. But it will eventually switch to 24/7 unmanned, onshore-controlled operations. Another innovative capability is the compatibility with 100% sustainable fuels, mainly ammonia.
The future fleet will boast a total of 15 ships, all able to operate with no crew onboard, while drastically cutting emissions through the use of ammonia.
Armada’s builder is one of the winners of the 2020 Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition launched by the UK government. The groundbreaking Armada project was the result of working together with prestigious partners such as the University of Oxford and the University of Southampton’s Marine and Maritime Institute.
Ocean Infinity also plans to establish a Marine Propulsion Test Facility where it will test the revolutionary Ammonia Marine Propulsion System (AMPS) for robotic ships.
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