China's first unmanned cargo ship makes maiden test.

On December 15, 2019, the unmanned cargo ship Jindoyuyn O Hao made the first test flight to Zhuhai from the terminal of the Xiangshan Seaport of Science and Technology. The ship was developed by Yunhang Intelligent.

Domestically made autonomous cargo ship (Picture source: Xinhua)

China's first autonomous cargo ship completed its maiden voyage after a grand inaugural ceremony in the Zhuhai Special Economic Zone of Guangdong province on Sunday, playing an important role in the country's efforts to speed up the planning and development of its intelligent shipping industry.

The ceremony was attended by more than 70 academicians, professors, experts, scholars and government officials from the mainland as well as the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions.

The ship was developed by Yunzhou Tech, a Zhuhai-based technology company in collaboration with Zhuhai municipal government, Wuhan University of Technology and CCS at the end of 2017, and was delivered in November this year.

Tsai Yuiliang, director of the Center for Scientific and Technological Innovation Testing of the Chinese Classification Society, told reporters that a successful test of an unmanned vessel is extremely important and crucial for the development, testing and standardization of unmanned navigation technologies on ships.

The vessel uses the technology of automatic navigation, remote control and is equipped with an electrified power plant. Yunhang Intelligent also develops and tests a system for remote control of ships.

The ship is 12.86 meters long and 3.8 meters wide. It has a draft of 1 meter and is designed to travel at 8 knots. Under the same load capacity, builders can save more than 20 per cent on construction costs and 20 per cent on operation costs, reduce fuel consumption by 15 per cent and significantly reduce emissions.