December 14, 2021

Project for Evaluating and Verifying the Automatic Navigation System and Developing
Element Technologies Started- Toward Faster Development of Safer Autonomous Ships -MTI Co., Ltd.
Tokyo Keiki Inc.
Japan Marine Science Inc.
NYK Line
Furuno Electric Co., Ltd.

A technology development project on autonomous ships - Establishment of a Development
Platform for an Automatic Navigation System and Development of Element Technologies for
the Automatic Navigation System - in which Tokyo Keiki Inc., Furuno Electric Co., Ltd., the NYK
Group’s MTI Co., Ltd., and Japan Marine Science Inc. have participated, in cooperation withcompanies including NYK Line, was selected by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportand Tourism (MLIT) for the “2021 Support Project for R&D in Promoting Aggregation andCooperation in the Maritime Industry,”* and the companies have just started the activities.
Autonomous ships, which are rapidly being developed worldwide in recent years, involve
multiple devices and systems responsible for recognizing surrounding information,
determining avoidance routes, and avoiding other ships. Therefore, the organization,
method, and evaluation axis for verifying and evaluating the safety and economic efficiency
of autonomous ships have become complicated, and so their organization/maintenance has
become an urgent task.
In this project, the above four participating companies and cooperators, including NYK Line,
aim to establish verification and evaluation systems that utilize simulation technologies forenabling shipyards and maritime equipment manufacturers and such to promote thedevelopment of autonomous ships much faster. In addition, for improving safety of theautomatic navigation system, we are to improve the recognition and judgement functions,which are element technologies that have been worked on so far, and the demonstration
tests will also be conducted on actual ships.

1.Overview of the project
We will mainly conduct R&Ds for the following items.
Target of development

Expected effect- Realizing much faster development of theautomatic navigation system- Reducing the workload of verification andevaluation of the automatic navigation
system- Creating highly reliable modules of theautomatic navigation system

1

Establish verification andevaluation systems forthe autonomous
navigation system

Establish simulation
systems that can verifyand evaluate all modules
working on software andconsisting of theautomatic navigationsystem2

Improve element
technologies –recognition, judgement,and responding functions– and conduct
demonstration tests on
actual ships

Commercialization of- Reducing human errors and workloads by- Display function of
introducing the products
collision-alert area
- Realizing much faster development of the- Recognition function of
automatic navigation system bysurrounding information
establishing a product-evaluation processof own ship
utilizing a simulator- Functions of avoiding- Improving usefulness of the simulator bycollision risk, of judging
comparing results of onboard tests withsuch options as creating
simulator tests
evasion routes, and ofresponding to evasion
navigation

2. Roles of each company participating in the project
MTI Co., Ltd.

- Establish verification and evaluation systems for theautonomous navigation system- Prepare the deployment of developed devices- Evaluate and supervise the above items

Tokyo Keiki Inc.

- Establish verification and evaluation systems for theautonomous navigation system

Japan Marine Science Inc.

- Establish verification and evaluation systems for theautonomous navigation system- Verify and evaluate developed devices

NYK Line- Provide the test environment and accumulated knowledge
as a shipping company

Furuno Electric Co., Ltd.

- Establish verification and evaluation systems for theautonomous navigation system- Improve recognition, judgement, and response functions

3. Overview of each company
MTI Co., Ltd.
Headquarters: Tokyo
President: Kazuo Ishizuka
Website: https://www.monohakobi.com/en/
Tokyo Keiki Inc.
Headquarters: Tokyo
Representative Director, President & CEO: Tsuyoshi Ando
Website: https://www.tokyokeiki.jp/e/Japan Marine Science Inc.
Headquarters: Kanagawa
CEO: Koichi Akamine
Website: https://www.jms-inc.jp/general/top/en
NYK Line
Headquarters: Tokyo
President: Hitoshi Nagasawa
Website: https://www.nyk.com/english/
Furuno Electric Co., Ltd.
Headquarters: Hyogo
President and CEO: Yukio Furuno
Website: https://www.furuno.co.jp/en/* 2021 Support Project for R&D in Promoting Aggregation and Cooperation in the Maritime
Industry
MLIT’s project started this fiscal year to support technology developments for strengthening thetechnological capabilities of the Japanese maritime industry. The project aims to facilitate
shipyards and maritime equipment manufacturers in their coming together for work on nextgeneration ship technologies, to foster Japanese system integrators, to make the industry’s
structural shift, and to further strengthen the technological capabilities.

Contact Details
MTI Co., Ltd.
Public Relations Director
Tel: +81-3-5222-7603
Tokyo Keiki Inc.
Marine Systems Company, Sales Department
Tel: +81-3-3737-8611

Japan Marine Science Inc.
Operation Technology Group
Tel: +81-44-548-9143
NYK Line
Corporate Communication Group, Media Relations Team
Tel: +81-3-3284-5190
Furuno Electric Co., Ltd.
Cooperate Planning Group, Brand Communication Team
Tel: +81-798-63-1100