MUNIN

M a r i t i m e U n m a n n e d N av i g a t i o n t h r o u g h i n t e l l i g e n c e i n n e t w o r k s

Research in maritime autonomous systems

project Results and technology potentials
Key facts about MUNIN

Project aims and overview

Scope:

The MUNIN research project has developed

Feasibility study

Test-bed development
Budget:

Total: EUR 3.8 million

EU Funding: EUR 2.9 million

The Unmanned Ship web page:

www.unmanned-ship.org

Seventh Framework Programme

Grant Agreement No 314286

a technical concept for the operation of an

unmanned merchant ship and assessed

its technical, economic and legal feasibi-

lity. The concepts core is a ship which is

completely unmanned at least for parts
of the voyage. Furthermore, the project

aims for short-term exploitation potentials

to support the technological progress in
conventional shipping.

The acronym MUNIN is short for Maritime

The origin of MUNIN lies in the strategic re-

search agenda and the implementation plan

of Waterborne TP, a cluster of European

maritime stakeholders that has published

a vision paper for the future development
of the maritime industry regarding

competitiveness and innovation while

also considering safety and environmental

requirements. As one key exploitation outcome for the maritime European research
agenda it names the autonomous vessel,
which is equipped with modular control
systems and communication technology

Unmanned Navigation through Intelligence

to enable wireless monitoring and control,

in Networks, pointing to the projects inhe-

including advanced decision support systems

Norse mythology it is also the name of one

Unmanned and autonomous vessels can

information and in the evening safely

bears the potential to:

rent idea of developing a technology for an

and the capabilities for remote and autono-

of Odins ravens that each day flys around

contribute to the aim of a more sustainable

unmanned autonomous vessel. Further, in

mous operation.

the world without any guidance, gathering

European maritime transport industry, as it

returning the information its cargo to

its master. This also is the vision for the
autonomous MUNIN vessel.

Reduce operational expenses,

Reduce environmental impact and

Attract seagoing professionals.

Case of application
The use case investigated in MUNIN is a dry
bulk carrier operating in intercontinental
tramp trades. This profile bears a high

attractiveness for the MUNIN concept, as

additional cargo requirements are low, the

attractiveness for slow steaming is high

and dry bulk carriers typically transport

operator ashore in the Shore Control Centre.

Therefore, the MUNIN concept defines the
following systems and entities:

An Advanced Sensor Module, which takes

care of the lookout duties on board the

vessel by continuously fusing sensor data

from existing navigational systems, such

as radar and AIS, combined with daylight

and infrared camera imagery;

cargo directly from point to point resulting

An Autonomous Navigation System, which

an important characteristic, as MUNIN only

route in accordance with legislation and

in a long, uninterrupted deep-sea voyage

compared to e.g. container trades. This is

envisages autonomous operation of an un-

manned vessel during deep-sea voyage and

not in congested or restricted waters. Those

tasks will still be executed by an on-board
crew, though the deep-sea/voyage-length
ratio is an important economic factor for
the operational efficiency.
Elements of the concept

Restricted satellite bandwidth in certain

regions and high communication costs

make a simple remote control solution

unattractive. Thus, MUNIN proposes a

concept, where the ship is autonomously

operated by newly developed systems on

board the vessel. Monitoring and cont-

rolling functionalities are executed by an

follows a predefined voyage plan within

certain degrees of freedom to adjust the

good seamanship autonomously, e.g.,

due to arising encounter situations or

significant changes in weather;

An Autonomous Engine and Monitoring

Control system, which enriches the ships

engine room and propulsion automation
systems with advanced failure predetection and handling functionalities while

keeping the optimal efficiency and taking

care of the additionally installed pump-

A Shore Control Centre Operator, who

monitors the safe operations of several

autonomous ships simultaneously from a

cubicle station and controls the vessels by

giving high level commands, e.g., updating

the voyage plan or the operational envelope of the autonomous system;

A Shore Control Centre Engineer, who

assists the operator in case of technical

questions and who is in charge of the

maintenance plan for the vessels based

on a condition-based maintenance system

ensuring sufficient reliability of the

technical system for the next voyages;

A Shore Control Centre Situation Room

Team, that can take over direct remote

control of a vessel in certain situations

via a shore side replica of the unmanned

vessels bridge including a Remote Manoeuvring Support System that ensures an

appropriate situation awareness in direct

control despite of the physical distance of

crew and vessel.

jet acting as a rudder and propulsion

Cost-benefit analysis

ly monitors and controls the autonomous-

Based on a shipping cash-flow model a

officers and engineers. It comprises

ducted. It showed that compared to a con-

redundancy;

A Shore Control Centre, which continuous-

ly operated vessel after it is being released

by the on-board crew of skilled nautical
amongst others the certain positions:

financial analysis of the developed concept

for a new-built MUNIN bulker was con-

ventional manned bulker the autonomous

bulker would be commercially viable under

vessels. The incident categories collision

attacks. Furthermore, it is unclear whether

expected present value by mUSD 7 over a

2014 period. Thus it clearly represents

Legal and liability analysis

certain circumstances. In a base scenario

the MUNIN bulker is found to improve the

25-year period compared to the reference

bulker. Besides cost savings due to a higher

efficiency of land-based services in port

and the Shore Control Centre particularly

the fact that the autonomous ship allows

for changes in ship design ensures a

positive expected present value. Such new

innovative autonomous ship designs should

make a reduction of fuel consumption and
thus emissions possible. However, this is
assuming that the depicted challenge of

autonomous heavy fuel oil operation can be

solved. But even if not, unmanned vessels
also bear efficiency potentials in certain

niches, like e.g. short sea shipping in emission control areas. While still associated

with a high level of uncertainty - due to the

early stage of concept development and the

limited scope of the project MUNIN the

results indicate that autonomous ships carry the potential to increase the profitability
of shipping companies.

Safety and security analysis

Besides profitability, safety is of course

levering the implementation of unmanned

and foundering are responsible for almost

50% of all total losses in the 2005 to

the category with the highest incident

probability. Furthermore, human errors

unmanned and autonomous ships are

attractive to such attacks at all.

are a crucial part of the root cause of most

Provided that there is reasonable certainty

MUNIN concept vessel and given a proper

functionalities, there is no reason to think

maritime accidents. Based on an analysis

of collision and foundering scenarios for a

operational and robustness testing, a

decrease of collision and foundering risk

of around ten times compared to manned

shipping was found to be possible, mainly

due to the elimination of fatigue issues.
Also, risks of engine and other system

breakdowns are expected to be lower for

unmanned ships if proper redundancy is

implemented and improved maintenance

and monitoring schemes are followed. Fire

and explosion represents a relatively small
part of all incidents. With the possibility to

use more efficient extinguishing systems in

fully enclosed spaces, it is likely that the unmanned ship will be much less risk-prone
than the manned ship.

Finally, risks from cyber-attacks and pirates

are issues that cause concern. However,

software systems as well as ships can be

designed and built providing a very high

resilience against digital and physical

that the unmanned ship can operate at

least as safely as a manned ship, in all its

that the legal framework cannot be adapted

to allow autonomous vessels in maritime
transport. The principal areas of concern

are navigation and manning. In both cases

the unmanned ship will significantly impact

the present regulations. Standards in construction, design and equipment of ships

will also be concerned. However, overall it

can be concluded that the unmanned ship

does not pose an unsurmountable obstacle

in legal terms. None the less, there will be a

high number of issues to be resolved.

In terms of liability, the biggest issue will

concern the attribution of the existing ship

master duties to the relevant and adequate

persons involved in the operation of an

unmanned ship. It is unclear whether this

legal role should be divided between the

SCC operators and masters, or attributed

to a single entity in the SCC. Here further
research will be necessary.

Autonomous vehicles

Objectives and system components

The idea of autonomous or intelligent

Unmanned ships are not trivial to develop

before that. The first modern attempts

regulations which govern the international

self-steered robots has been around since

the advent of computers and arguably even

were on land and later under water, gaining

momentum in the 1980s. More recently, the

air, sea surface and space have also become

arenas for autonomous vehicles. E.g. driver-

less metro systems are already operating

in a number of cities worldwide. However,

large unmanned merchant ships have, until

the MUNIN project, not been considered a
serious possibility. They seemed to be too

large and consequences of any mishap too

severe to be contemplated.

The Waterborne TP strategic research

agenda from 2007 listed the autonomous

ship as one desirable exploitation outcome,

but this was more focused on advanced

automation and improved sensors than a

D6: Systems and procedures to run the

ships propulsion and machinery systems

for weeks without physical human inter-

or deploy as they appear to be contrary to

vention for long periods of several weeks.

shipping industry.

necessary. This requires an autonomous

many of the international conventions and

There are also several technical components that need to be developed before

the unmanned ship can become a reality.

The main components of the ship concept

investigated in MUNIN are illustrated on
the top of this page. Each of the compo-

nents is given a brief presentation on the

following pages. The investigations took

place in a number of sub-activities and as

project reports are labelled with one of the

following activity codes:

D4: ICT infrastructure, including ship-

shore and ship-ship communication, sa-

fety, security and reliability of integrated

To promote ecological and economical

sustainability, high efficiency operation is

Engine Monitoring and Control System

and an Energy Efficiency System as well as

maintenance functions. It also includes

some functions to handle onboard technical problems from the before-mentioned

Shore Control Centre;

D7: The continuously manned Shore

Control Centre with its new types of moni-

toring and control facilities is necessary to

operate unmanned ships autonomously.

This also includes procedures on how to

interact with other ships, participate in
search and rescue operations and with
vessel traffic services centres.

ship data networks. This corresponds to

In addition to technical and operational

has investigated how a large merchant ship

D5: Bridge functionalities to manoeuvre

issues are also investigated within each

conventional ships or higher. The use case

navigation systems and functions in the

fully unmanned ship. Nonetheless, this was

the starting point for MUNIN. The project

can be operated partially or fully unmanned

at the same safety levels than todays

ship in MUNIN is a handymax dry bulker

of about 75.000 dead weight tonnes and a

service speed of 16 knots.

the infrastructure on which the different

functions are implemented;

a ship autonomously require sensor

systems, remote manoeuvring, onboard

Shore Control Centre for support of the

Remote Manoeuvring Support System and

Deep Sea Navigation System;

issues, questions regarding legislation,

liability, insurance and contractual

of the named areas. Additionaly, further

project reports have been produced in the

following sub-activity areas:

D8: Proof of concept trials;

D9: Cost-benefit analysis;

D10: Alternative autonomous concepts.

Benefits of autonomous shipping

At the outset of MUNIN, one primary aim

was to mitigate the higher crew costs for

slow steaming. This was the economic
rationale for the project. For a typical

medium sized bulk carrier, a 30% reduction

in speed can save around 50% fuel, even
when counting in the extra voyage days.
However, increased crew wages would

offset much of these savings. Slow steaming

also increases the societal challenge of

providing attractive working conditions on

long and slow intercontinental voyage.

Unmanned ships are also an important con-

tribution to the greening of shipping, e.g. by

the use of alternative fuels. For the named

reasons, a significant reduction of exhaust

gas emissions from shipping is expected. It

was also stipulated that an unmanned ship

can be operated more efficiently with more

advanced automatic energy management

and automated look-out, navigation and

collision avoidance will provide significant

safety benefits with regard to that.

These expectations have been confirmed

by the project although the economic

benefit will depend very much on technical

solutions, fuel oil prices and the type of

trade the ship is involved in. The unmanned

ship will need more reliable and operatorindependent technical systems, increasing
its costs. This may, e.g. prohibit onboard

processing of HFO and require the ship to

use more expensive fuel types. Necessary
redundancy in machinery and energy

production will add to the capital costs. On

the other hand, no accommodation section

and reduced energy consumption and more

efficient propulsion systems reduce both
capital and operational costs.

Limitations of autonomous shipping

systems and improved routing and navi-

The main conclusion of the research is that

accommodation superstructures.

safer and more cost-effective. Instead of

gation. A large contribution to increased

efficiency would result from the omission of

Today, most accidents and fatalities at sea

happen onboard the sailors own ships. On

unmanned ships such incidents will not

occur. In addition, human error is a dominant factor in many maritime casualties

unmanned and autonomous ships can and

will be applied where they will be both

retrofitting existing ships, newbuildings

are preferred. As an important result of

the project, a list of critical design factors

characterizing a viable autonomous and unmanned ship concept has been developed:

Shore control: It may be conceivable

to build certain types of unmanned

ships that are completely independent

of a Shore Control Centre, but this will

require advanced onboard systems and

technologies which in most cases are not

cost-effective today.

Operational case: Several factors influence

the viability of the concept. The ship
will need technical and operational

infrastructure at its ports of departure

and arrival, making tramp operations less

desirable. Transiting dense traffic waters

will probably only be possible with direct

monitoring functions, affecting the area of

operation. In the foreseeable future, ope-

rating licenses will depend on agreements

between involved flag and coastal states
further reducing operational cases.

New ship design: The unmanned ship

will have to be designed from scratch,

presumably without superstructure or accommodation section and with simplified

and redundant technical systems. This

reduces costs and energy consumption as

well as the need for onboard maintenance.

Monitoring and control: Without crew

onboard, the systems must monitor

technical and cargo conditions, detect

failures and unauthorized boarding. Also,

appropriate responses must be assured.

Will MUNINs vision of an unmanned and

autonomous ship become reality?
And when might that be?

Further research and large scale validation

tests in simulation and in-situ environ-

ments are necessary to develop applicable

solutions for the shipping industry.

Intermediate steps of enhanced ship system automation are expected, allowing for:
advanced shore-based assistance services through improved connectivity,
periodically unattended bridges and engine rooms and thus
more flexible working hours for on-board crews.

Advanced Sensor Module

On an unmanned ship, sensors and

sensor data processing are replacing the

perceptions of the officer of the watch and

thus are critical elements in the realization

of autonomy. The Advanced Sensor Module

is responsible for object detection and clas-

sification and environmental perception.

It uses input data from infrared and visual

spectrum cameras as well as radar and AIS

safety sensors to build a local map of ob-

be investigated further, e.g. to identify life

reduce overall uncertainty and improve the

data to detect objects and determine if they

are a danger to the ship or if they need to

rafts, flotsam or dangers to navigations. It

maintains a proper lookout for ship traffic,

obstacles and monitors the environmental
conditions in the vicinity of the ship.

Further, the system collects and assesses

data from navigational, meteorological and

jects and potential hazards. Thus, data from

multiple sensors are collected and fused to
quality and integrity of the so-called world
perception model. This overall perception

is used as a basis to determine appropriate

actions under the prevailing conditions.

Sensor information is mainly used by the

autonomous Deep Sea Navigation System

but is also presented on an integrated situation display in the Shore Control Centre.
Deep Sea Navigation System

The Deep Sea Navigation System ensures

that the ship follows its planned route

within the allowable deviations given by

the present operational envelope. Devia-

tions can be caused by developing severe

weather conditions or to avoid complex

traffic situations. The ships particulars, its

technical condition as well as the weather

and traffic situation are taken into account.

In order to handle a ship on trans-oceanic
voyages without on-board crew, the

MUNIN project has introduced the Deep Sea

Navigation System which:
8

Determines COLREG-obligations towards

other ships and manoeuvres the autonomous ship accordingly to the rules;

Optimizes trans-oceanic voyage plans

based on meteorological forecasts;

Operates the ship safely in immediate and

harsh weather conditions in accordance
with the IMO weather guidance criteria.

The Deep Sea Navigation System can ope-

rate fully autonomously but also allows the

perform complex manoeuvres by verifying

and control of the technical systems also

autonomous as well as remote navigation.

munication bandwidth and allows tracking

the outcome of a planned set of commands.

These motion predictions enable precise

Engine Monitoring and Control System

Shore Control Centre operator to interact

The Engine Monitoring and Control System

Remote Manoeuvring Support System

to add more advanced condition monitoring

and thus to remotely control the ship.

As an auxilliary for the Shore Control Centre

and for the Deep Sea Navigation System,

the Remote Manoeuvring Support System

has been developed. It aids in carrying out

manoeuvres for collision avoidance, while
navigating in constrained waterways and

in ports. By providing the anticipated ship

motion trajectory, it is of essential importance to safe and efficient unmanned and
autonomous ship operation. The system

provides ship motion predictions resulting

from various rudder or engine commands
for a specific ship in a its specific envi-

ronment. Thus, the Remote Manoeuvring

Support System provides calculations and

displays for anticipated ship movements

under constraints of manoeuvring ability.

This can be done even on a limited capacity

communication link and can be used to

is an enhancement to existing ship automation and control systems. The main aim is

requires multi-level aggregation of decision

support information. This reduces comof performance trends. The developed

concept of technical condition indicators

is important in this context. It allows very

compact information to be sent to the

Shore Control Centre with the possibility

Port

functionalities. In addition to condition

monitoring, adding of increased digital

interfaces to the navigation systems and the

Stop

engine room and other technical systems.

functions and breakdowns during the deep

Starboard

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sea voyage. Monitoring is also important for

better maintenance planning. The overall

technical and environmental performance

of the ship depend on careful diagnostics.
Such a monitoring and control diagnostic
system for autonomous ship has been

developed with robust detection abilities

for e.g. broken, burned-on or missing piston

rings or for radial wear. This system also

detects thermal overloads of the cylinder

liner. Remote and effective monitoring

0,8 nm

Actual

autonomous and unmanned operation of

technical systems is crucial to prevent mal-

2,4 nm

Turning Circle to Port

Turning Circle to Starboard 0,9 nm

Shore Control Centre are necessary to allow

Continuous monitoring of the critical

Stopping Distance

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to request lower level measurements or

operate without problems when it is at

satellite communication bandwidth. The

Maintenance Interaction System

of ship offhire due to technical failures

systems needing improved monitoring and

intermediate calculations where needed.

Technical operations of an unmanned and

autonomous ship are arguably the most

complex part of shifting from conventional

ships. Today, most onboard systems are

designed and built with the availability of

crew in mind. Without crew, the systems
have to be redesigned or new processes

put into place to ensure that the ship will

sea and that general ship maintenance can

be performed without increasing the risk
unnecessarily. The maintenance strategy

incorporates a ship system redesign as well

as the development of a new maintenance
interaction system. The user interface of

project has analysed technical systems on-

board existing ships and pointed out those

support from the Shore Control Centre.
Energy Efficiency System

the system will be integrated in the Shore

There are several possibilities for energy

extended equipment monitoring and con-

for conventional ships, but the increased

Control Centre, but it will also require new

onboard functions. These functions include

dition aggregation functions to minimize

efficiency optimisation on an unmanned

and autonomous ship. Many also applicable

degree of instrumentation and automated

control symplifies implementation. Also, an

unmanned and autonomous ship will have
somewhat different engine and propulsion
configurations compared to todays ships.
One significant difference are the higher

redundancy requirements. Duplication of

engines, propulsion and steering systems

and possibly also diesel-electric systems is

necessary. The removal of accommodations

and possibly also of heavy fuel treatment
systems also allows new types of energy

management strategies. MUNINs Energy

Efficiency System optimizes the energy

management and fuel consumption by

analysing the ships power demands and

13

uses this as a basis for regulating the engine

control system. The Energy Efficiency Sys-

tem also seeks to use waste heat recovery

and change to autonomous mode when

1 Fraunhofer CML

Shore Control Centre executes commands,

4 Fraunhofer CML

evasive manoeuvres or routine machinery

adjustments need to be made. When the

the ship systems will go into remote control

mode. In case of emergencies, the ship will

activate the fail-to-safe mode if the required

shore assistance should not be available
and other available sources of energy. At

the same time it compiles periodic reports

on consumption, emissions and the ship
performance to the shore operator.
Shore Control Centre

The Shore Control Centre acts as a

due to e.g. a loss of communication. The

MUNIN concept relies on the Shore Control

Centre to handle complex situations as the
onboard autonomous controller can only

operate inside the defined constraints. This

contributes to the balance between techno-

logical complexity and economic rationality,

making this a viable concept.

continuously manned supervisory station

for monitoring and controlling a fleet of

autonomous ships. Most of the time, the

ships are operating without any need for

intervention from shore. In cases where
the automated onboard systems cannot

safely handle a situation, assistance will be

provided. The limits for what is considered

safe are customizable within the so-called

operational envelope, setting navigational

boundaries. The operational envelope
will also include other factors such as

visibility, wave height and traffic. From a

legal perspective, this supervisory entity is

envisioned to take on at least some of the
responsibilities of the ships masters and

chief engineers. Further tasks which need

to taken over by the shore-based personnel

include e.g. VHF communication, VTS

reporting, onboard energy management,

condition monitoring and maintenance

planning. The ship will operate mostly in

automatic mode running on track pilot

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2 Fraunhofer CML
3 Fraunhofer CML
5 MARINTEK AS

6 Fraunhofer CML
7 Fraunhofer CML
8 Aptomar AS
9 Aptomar AS

1 0 Fraunhofer CML
1 1 Fraunhofer CML
1 2 Fraunhofer CML
1 3 Marorka ehf

1 4 Fraunhofer CML

Partner contacts

Activity areas

www.aptomar.com

Object classification

Aptomar AS

Mr. Jonas Aamodt Morus

Sensor systems

jonas.moraus@aptomar.com
Chalmers Technical University
www.chalmers.se

Dr. Scott N. MacKinnon

Human factors

Shore control design

scottm@chalmers.se

Fraunhofer Center for Maritime Logistics

www.cml.fraunhofer.de

Administrative project coordination

Deep sea navigation

hans-christoph.burmeister@cml.fraunhofer.de

Bridge functionality integration

Hochschule Wismar

Remote maneuvering support

Mr. Hans-Christoph Burmeister

www.hs-wismar.de

Dr.-Ing. Karsten Wehner

Simulation test-bed

Engine monitoring and and control

karsten.wehner@hs-wismar.de
MarineSoft - benntec Systemtechnik GmbH
www.benntec.de/marinesoft

Ship machinery simulations

Dr. Volker Khler

volker.koehler@marinesoft.de
MARINTEK, Trondheim

www.sintef.no/marintek

Technical project coordination

ICT and communication architecture

ornulfjan.rodseth@marintek.sintef.no

Maintenance strategies

Marorka ehf

Energy efficiency optimization

Mr. rnulf Jan Rdseth

www.marorka.com

Technical condition indexing

Mr. Steindr E. Sigursson

steindor.sigurdsson@marorka.com
University College Cork
www.ucc.ie

Dr. Benedicte Sage-Fuller

b.sage@ucc.ie

Legal, liability and contractual issues