China's first autonomous navigation container ship 'Zhi Fei' successfully undocked from Qingdao Shipyard and headed to the waters near Qingdao Blue Valley, where the country's first intelligent ship test site is located. According to plan, 'Zhi Fei' will complete its full-scale intelligent navigation test at the Qingdao Offshore Ship Intelligent Navigation Experimental Test Site before being delivered for operation.
It is understood that the 300TEU intelligent container ship 'Zhi Fei' is China's first coastal container transport vessel with unmanned intelligent navigation capability and meeting autonomous navigation test requirements. It is also currently the world's largest intelligent navigation ship under construction. As a vessel realizing the results of a series of National Key Research and Development Program projects, the construction of 'Zhi Fei' is of great significance to China's exploration and mastery of independent ship intelligent navigation technologies.
The technical leading organization for 'Zhi Fei' is the Water Transport Science Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport, with investment and construction by Qingdao Blue Valley Smart Navigation (Qingdao) Technology Co., Ltd., and design by Shanghai Jiahao Ship Design Institute. The ship has an overall length of 117.15 meters, a molded breadth of 17.32 meters, a molded depth of 9.9 meters, a design speed of 12 knots, and an endurance of 4,500 nautical miles.
'Zhi Fei' will be equipped with an intelligent navigation system independently developed by China, featuring three driving modes: manual driving, remote control driving, and unmanned autonomous navigation. It can achieve intelligent perception and recognition of the navigation environment, autonomous tracking, independent route planning, intelligent collision avoidance, automatic berthing and unberthing, and remote control driving. Through multi-network and multi-mode communication systems such as 5G and satellite communications, it can coordinate with shore-based institutions and facilities in ports, shipping, maritime affairs, and navigation safety, including production, service, dispatch and control, and supervision.
In March 2019, the national key R&D program project "Comprehensive Transportation and Intelligent Transportation" key special project 12.1 "Key Technologies for Intelligent Ship Navigation and Control Based on Ship-Shore Coordination" was officially approved, led by the Water Transport Science Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport. The project team, with the Water Transport Science Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport as the lead unit, is composed of a total of 21 institutions, including 4 key universities, 6 first-class research institutes, 6 national-level backbone units in waterway transportation technology and business, and 4 innovative high-tech enterprises. It brings together the most advantageous research teams in China's shipping, shipbuilding, artificial intelligence, and other related fields from industry, academia, research, and application. The project aims to solve major common key technical problems in comprehensive transportation and intelligent transportation, focus on the development of new technologies and new business forms for intelligent shipping, and address frontier basic scientific problems and major common key technical issues in intelligent ship navigation and control technology.
In December 2019, Smart Navigation (Qingdao) Technology Co., Ltd. signed a construction contract with Qingdao Shipyard Co., Ltd. The demonstration ship 300TEU container ship "Zhifei" for the concentrated application of the research results of the national key R&D program project "Key Technologies for Intelligent Ship Navigation and Control Based on Ship-Shore Coordination" was officially launched. On May 15, 2020, construction of "Zhifei" officially began.
The 'Zhi Fei' will be equipped with a self-developed intelligent navigation system and will serve as the first integrated sample for systematic tests at the Qingdao offshore ship intelligent navigation test site. This is of great significance for China's exploration and mastery of autonomous ship intelligent navigation technologies and for building the Qingdao comprehensive intelligent shipping demonstration zone.
The 'Zhi Fei' has integrated and installed an autonomous navigation system completely independently developed by multiple research institutions and enterprises, including the Water Transport Research Institute of the Ministry of Transport and Smart Navigation (Qingdao) Technology Co., Ltd. It adopts a high-capacity DC integrated electric propulsion system developed by the 704th Research Institute of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, marking the first time that two major technological leaps—DC electrification and intelligentization—have been achieved on the same vessel. Smart Navigation (Qingdao) Technology Co., Ltd. is committed to breaking through basic scientific problems and major common key technologies in the field of ship intelligent navigation and control, making a 'Qingdao exploration' for the development of the intelligent shipping industry domestically and globally, and contributing Qingdao's strength to the building of a maritime power.
In May 2018, the Qingdao Intelligent Shipping Technology Innovation and Comprehensive Experimental Base settled in Qingdao Blue Valley. According to the National Key Research and Development Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the base will implement a "three-ship" construction plan, and "Zhifei" is the first experimental ship in this plan. In May last year, China's first test ship for unmanned autonomous navigation systems, "Zhiteng", was launched in Blue Valley for navigation testing, providing the basis and support for the construction of the 300TEU autonomous navigation container experimental ship "Zhifei". As a comprehensive experimental platform for verifying the achievements of the national key research and development project "Key Technologies for Ship Intelligent Navigation and Control Based on Ship-Shore Collaboration", "Zhifei" will carry out real-scenario tests at the Qingdao coastal intelligent ship test site after completion, and then be put into operation on nearby commercial routes to continuously verify the safety and stability of new intelligent ship navigation technologies. In the future, it is also planned to build 500TEU and 800TEU intelligent container experimental ships and continue to verify the safety and stability of new intelligent ship navigation technologies on domestic coastal routes and ocean routes.
As a vessel carrying the series of achievements of the national key research and development project "Key Technologies for Ship Intelligent Navigation and Control Based on Ship-Shore Collaboration", "Zhifei" is of great significance to China's exploration and mastery of autonomous ship navigation technologies and the creation of a comprehensive intelligent shipping demonstration zone in Qingdao. It also has guiding significance for the formulation of relevant standards and regulations for intelligent ship construction in China, and will provide important experience for the future development of intelligent ships and intelligent shipping in China.
It is reported that the 'Zhifei' is currently the world's largest autonomous navigation container ship put into commercial operation as a demonstration application of the project's R&D results. The ship will be operated by Shandong Port Shipping Group and will take the lead in realizing ship-shore coordinated operations between the intelligent ship and the unmanned terminal at Qingdao Port of Shandong Port. At that time, it will be used to complete experimental subjects such as green power, ship-shore mobile communication networks, intelligent pilotage, ship-tug integration, and unmanned dispatching management of container cargo. It will also provide real-ship certification support for the technical standards of autonomous navigation integrated systems and the relevant regulations for maritime supervision of unmanned ships.
