MOL and Partners Set World Records for Time and Distance in Autonomous Navigation with Sea Trial Using Large Commercial Car Ferry

Follows Successful Trial of Coastal Containership in Autonomous Sailing

Tokyo - February 07, 2022

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. (MOL; President & CEO: Takeshi Hashimoto), together with its two group companies and the following consortium partners, today announced the completion of a successful sea trial of autonomous sailing using a large commercial coastal car ferry, in a voyage from the Tomakomai Port, Hokkaido Prefecture to the Oarai Port, Ibaraki Prefecture. The trial was conducted on February 6 and 7 as part of the Nippon Foundation's MEGURI2040 (Note 1) unmanned ship project.

The test followed the actual commercial route of the ferry Sunflower Shiretoko, covering a distance of about 750km, the world's longest distance for autonomous sailing, in about 18 hours, also a world record. The significance about this test is the confirmation of the development elements "the Autonomous Berthing and Unberthing Technology", "the Autonomous Collision Avoidance Routing System", and "the Target Visual Image Processing and Ranging Technology" which functioned normally even during such a long voyage.

Since MEGURI2040's inception in 2020, the consortium has conducted various elemental experiments to realize autonomous sailing. As with the coastal containership which succeeded in the sea trial of autonomous sailing on January 24-25, 2022 (Note 2), the sea trial using the car ferry was carried out after verifying features such as autonomous collision avoidance using a simulator owned by MOL Marine & Engineering Co., Ltd. and element tests on a real ship.


The Sunflower Shiretoko, the large coastal car ferry used for the trial of autonomous sailing. Image by MOL.


Image by MOL.

The sea trial of the coastal car ferry followed the successful test of autonomous sailing with a coastal containership. The system used for the autonomous sailing in the tests of these two vessels is same specification, and based on the success of these demonstrations, we believe that it was suggested that autonomous sailing might be possible on any ship by installing necessary equipment.

At present, there are issues such as improving sensing technology and making collision avoidance routes even closer to the feeling of crew members and the consortium continually aims to reduce the workload on seafarers and ensure safe, secure marine traffic by integrating the knowledge gained through MEGURI2040 initiatives to realize autonomous sailing activities with AI technologies such as computer vision.

Consortium members and its main roles



Outline of the Sunflower Shiretoko
Gross tonnage: 11,410t
Length: 190m
Width: 26.4m
Capacity (Passengers): 154 persons
Capacity (vehicles): Heavy-duty trucks: 160/Passenger cars: 62



(Note 1)
Please refer to June 15, 2020 press release: Initiative to Realize Autonomous Sailing Ready to Start Demonstration Voyages - Concluding Contract in R&D Grant Program Related to Unmanned Vessels with the Nippon Foundation.

(Note 2)
Please refer to January 25, 2022 press release: World's First Successful Sea Trial of Autonomous Sailing on a Commercial Container Ship Voyage.

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd. press release