The American classification society ABS and three societies shipping company Polaris Shipping, the company shipbuilding HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) and AVIKUS, which develops autonomous navigation solutions, have signed a Agreement for the implementation of an autonomous navigation concept which will allow the operation of the control bridge of the unmanned ship during overhead crossings sea, when certain low-risk conditions occur, such as navigation on the open sea.

The project envisages that the autonomous navigation solution is tested on one of the very large 325,000 hours carriers tons of Polaris Shipping. Under the agreement, Polaris Shipping will review the operational profile of its fleet of VLOC and reduce quantitative parameters based on actual operations conducted by the crew, including human reaction. AVIKUS will define the operational concept of the Autonomous navigation system required for a bridge without crew together with the related technical requirements. HHI identify the design changes of the ship on the the resulting concept and will conduct a review of the related project drawings. ABS will examine so independent concept from the point of view of safety and regulatory compliance, identify gaps with respect to regulations and standards in force and consolidate the results.