Kirill Gaida, Deputy General Director for Navigation Safety of FSUE “Rosmorport”, spoke at the First Hydrographic Conference, which was held in St. Petersburg on June 27, with a report on the implementation of marine unmanned technologies for navigation and hydrographic support of maritime traffic, as well as on the implementation of unmanned technologies under The Autonomous Navigation federal project.

Currently, FSUE “Rosmorport” is implementing unmanned surface vehicles (USV) to optimize the work on depth control in the waters of seaports and on approaches to them both for ensuring navigation safety and for hydrographic support of repair dredging.

An unmanned hydrographic complex based on USV with a single-beam echo sounder has become an innovative solution for the effective depth surveys. It is an uncrewed small-sized vessel made in the form of a trimaran, which is used in the waters of the Kaliningrad Sea Canal, the water area of the construction of an international marine terminal for the cruise and passenger vessels in Pionerskiy, Kaliningrad Region.

The participants of the conference also got acquainted with a domestic unmanned hydrographic complex based on USV with a single-beam echo sounder, which can operate autonomously for 8 hours and will be used in the waters of the seaport of Vladivostok, including for hydrographic support of dredging repair works.

“Using of USVs with hydrographic complexes will allow FSUE “Rosmorport” to organize constant depths survey in the water area of seaports with critical sub-keel depths and on approaches to them. In addition, this will significantly reduce the costs of the enterprise for attracting hydrographic boats for works, and will also increase the mobility of hydrographic units,” Kirill Gaida summed up.

To conduct an experiment on a-Navigation and gain experience in the practical application of a universal technological platform for uncrewed control of sea vessels, FSUE “Rosmorport” allocated a group of vessels consisting of the Redut dredger and the Rabochaya scow in 2019.

Two-fuel ferries Marshal Rokossovsky and General Chernyakhovsky at the Seaport of Ust-Luga – Seaport of Kaliningrad line are equipped with a-Navigation means. The autonomous navigation system, which is installed on the ferries, is designed for automatic analysis of the navigation situation, guiding the vessel along the given route in automatic mode and remote control mode, automatic decision-making on maneuvering the vessel, collecting data from the vessels' equipment.

At the same time, the Remote Control Center to control the FSUE “Rosmorport” innovative ferries will be deployed in St. Petersburg. The center will enable monitoring the navigation situation, controlling of the main parameters of the ferries traffic, including the operation of the power plant, as well as remote controlling of the ferries out at sea.

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The first hydrographic conference was organized by the FSUE “Hydrographic Enterprise”, which celebrates its 90th anniversary this year. The PortNews information and analytical agency was a partner of the conference.

During the conference, the participants discussed the achievements in the domestic hydrographic sphere, the prospects for its development and the possible format of international cooperation. Special attention was paid to hydrographic surveys in the water area of the Northern Sea Route.

Photos provided by the PortNews information and analytical agency