SMU, Fujitsu and the Institute of High Performance Computing at A*Star announced a collaboration to develop technologies to help improve maritime congestion forecasts and minimise collisions for vessel traffic management. The project is being conducted at the Urban Computing and Engineering Centre of Excellence (UCE CoE), set up in 2014 by A*Star, SMU and Fujitsu. The initiative is supported by the Maritime Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).
SMU’s Lab Director and Lead Investigator of the UCE CoE, Professor of Information Systems Lau Hoong Chuin, talked about the extensive use of multi-agent technology in coordinating the movements of unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned ground vehicles.
He explained that in this project with MPA, SMU is proposing a next generation maritime traffic coordination technology that is similar to air traffic control, yet respects major differences between air and sea navigation.
“With the advent of autonomous ships, this technology can potentially disrupt vessel traffic management to reduce human errors and improve navigational safety,” said Prof Lau.