Finferries demonstrates fully autonomous Ro-Pax

Finnish state-owned ferry operator Finferries successfully demonstrated a fully autonomous vessel in the archipelago south of the city of Turku on Monday, December 3.

The Ro-Pax ferry Falco was able to navigate autonomously from Parainen to Nauvo while the return journey was conducted under remote control.

The vessel detected objects utilising sensor fusion and artificial intelligence and conducted collision avoidance. It also demonstrated automatic berthing with a recently developed autonomous navigation system.

All this was achieved without any human intervention from the crew.

Falco is equipped with a range of advanced sensors which allow it to build a detailed picture of its surroundings, in real time and with a level of accuracy beyond that of the human eye.

The situational awareness picture is created by fusing sensor data and it is relayed to Finferries’ remote operating centre on land some 50 kilometres away in Turku city centre, where a captain monitors the autonomous operations and can take control of the vessel if necessary.