China's first "smart" ship embedded with a domestically-developed intelligent navigation system made its debut in Shanghai, according to official media Xinhua.
China Daily also reported that the world's first smart ship, developed and built by China State Shipbuilding Corporation (CSSC), has started its first trial voyage in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province.
Christened as 'Great Intelligence' (Great Smart) 179-meter-long ship is 32-meters-wide and 15-meters-high, with a maximum loading capacity of 38,800 tonnes.
The report said that it is installed with SOMS, a China-Developed marine system with autonomous learning ability and intelligent operation system. It can analyze real-time navigation and meteorological data, pick the best routes and alert the crew to hidden dangers in advance.
Developed by CSSC), Great Intelligence will be used by Sinotrans Shipping to transport coal and salt between China, Australia and Southeast Asia.
Qiu Bohua, with the Systems Engineering Research Institute of CSSC quoted as saying: "Great Intelligence will become smarter as it accumulates more data. Not only can it spot dangers and system bugs, it also can lower transport costs and raise efficiency."
Technical performance of the ship has reached advanced levels, and it has passed official assessments by the China Classification Society and Lloyd's Register (LR) of Shipping.
The ship is a modified version of the Green Dolphin fuelefficient bulk carrier concept. The company calls it the world's first smart ship because it is the first seafaring vehicle awarded the "cybersafe", "cyber-perform" and "cyber-maintain" smart-vessel notations by the British maritime classification society LR , one of the top maritime technical standards services.