Estimated at USD 470 million, the Unmanned Surface Vessels (USV) market is expected to reach around USD 1 billion by 2022 due to the ever-increasing need for maritime security, ocean mapping and data. With Europe’s USV market set to grow at a higher rate than anywhere else globally, unmanned surface vessels are able to augment or even replace divers for salvage activities, port security, fish farms surveillance, bridge and dam monitoring and to aid research efforts.
The Seawork Commercial Marine Conference’s morning session will focus on USVs and will invite speakers from a range of industries, including Dr Katrina Kemp – Smart Ships & Automation Policy Officer at the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, who will be discussing the government’s emerging vision for autonomous, smart shipping; Ifor Bielecki – Director of Sea-Kit, on the challenges of long range, long endurance USV operations; and Gordon Meadow – Associate Professor at Warsash School of Maritime and Science and Engineering, who will be discussing their collaborative research project with Rolls Royce developing the unmanned and partially autonomous operation of marine vessels.
Marine hybrid propulsion systems are yet another fast emerging market, estimated to reach around USD 5,252 million by 2024. Already a preferred, clean propulsion system choice globally, hybrid technologies are increasingly being used in several vessel categories. With the ever-increasing need to reduce operating costs and minimise fuel consumption, together with growing environmental and legislative pressures to bring down emissions, more and more vessel operators are beginning to see the benefits of embracing hybrid propulsion.
The afternoon session of the Seawork Commercial Marine Conference will centre around the future of hybrid propulsion and will invite speakers including Anne Duncan – CEO at Ecospeed, who will discuss how hybrid and windfarm operations could offer a clean solution for the shipping industry; Tony Birr – Consultant at Goodchild Marine Services Limited, on new developments in hybrid pilot boats; Dr Christoph Ballin- Co-Founder and CEO of Torqeedo GmbH, who will discuss the marine sustainability revolution and how hybrid propulsion technologies could play a key part.
Both sessions will provide businesses across the commercial marine industry the opportunity to keep ahead of the curve with developments within this fast-paced sector.
The Seawork Commercial Marine Conference takes place on 4 July 2018 at Seawork 2018 ( 3-5 July 2018 ) in Mayflower Park, Southampton, UK.