A recreational boat equipped with the Avikus autonomous cruising and docking system (Avikus)

After the anchor was lifted for a test ride on Incheon waters, captain Lee Jun-sik at Avikus, a local autonomous navigation software venture, turned to a tablet PC, not the helm, to steer the boat.

Lee simply types in where he wishes to go, and then the system automatically comes up with the best and safest route.

“The route planning of the system comes after establishing obstacles and marine-related data. Once the route planning is done and we touch this play button on the tablet, the boat starts moving,” Lee said.

When a fishing boat is detected ahead, the boat, installed with the auto-navigating system Avikus HiNAS 2.0, changes its direction to avoid a collision and returns to the route once the obstacle is gone.

“Our artificial intelligence can process various objects and can change the angle of the boat’s movement accordingly,” said Lee, adding that it is also equipped with cameras and LiDAR sensors.

As an in-house venture under Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, Avikus achieved a milestone on June 2 with its Hyundai intelligent Navigation Assistant System (HiNAS) 2.0. With this system, a 134,000-ton commercial tanker, Prism Courage, autonomously navigated the Pacific Ocean. It left the Gulf of Mexico on May 1 and arrived at South Korea’s western Chungcheong Province within 33 days.

Avikus will be introducing HiNAS 2.0 on commercial vessels later this year. It would also debut in the recreational boat market in October at the Miami International Boat Show and will be open to the public in 2023.

“Our goal is to become the global leader of autonomous navigation on both commercial vessels and also recreational boats,” said the CEO of Avikus Lim Do-hyeong.

“Unlike commercial vessels with less than 500 units made in a year, the world’s recreational boat market is big. Currently, more than 10 million of them are navigating, and each year more than 200,000 of them are newly made,” Lim pointed out.

Avikus has grown quickly, having sold the level 1 autonomous cruising system to over 200 ships, from which it collected a vast amount of data.

“We already have the technology for level 3 and 4 autonomous navigation because of the operation and simulation data we have collected. But to be able to introduce it, there is a need for marine law reform,” said Lim.

The company’s self-cruising system could also auto-dock the boat when arriving at the destination.

“Docking is when boat-related accidents occur the most because, on a boat, there are no brakes,“ said Lee as the boat reached the pier. “With the wind and the waves, it’s hard to control the boat meticulously. But this system can help the boat dock safely.”

By Hong Yoo (yoohong@heraldcorp.com)