Rolls-Royce to Open Centre for Autonomous Ships and AI

Rolls-Royce's new centre will see it partner with the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) and Tampere University of Technology (TUT), together with numerous SMEs and start-ups specialising in novel technologies. The aim of the alliance, an ecosystem bringing together global forerunners and agile ICT start-ups, is to provide the world's first autonomous maritime products, services and a flourishing ecosystem by 2025. Sauli Eloranta, SVP of Rolls-Royce, said: "Finland is the home of top ICT expertise and a strong maritime cluster. That is why Rolls-Royce has decided to establish the centre in Turku." The Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation (Tekes) is committed to funding the work of the Alliance, its ambitious research and development projects, and its innovations in order to achieve the aim of remotely operated and autonomous shipping in the forthcoming years. An example a recently funded joint project is'DIMECC Design for Value (D4V)', which had the objective of understanding and exploiting the opportunities of digital disruption in maritime logistics value chains.