Autonomous Shipping Means: the Main Areas of Patenting Research and Development Results
Aleksandra Ivanova, Артем Буцанец, Vera Breskich, Tatyana Zhilkina
Abstract
Nowadays, it is known about the development of more than 60 models of such vessels. Usually the scientific literature describes the development of elements, mechanisms and intelligent control systems. However, the authors have not identified scientific works that allow determining the most popular research areas among patent literature, as well as those that may require additional attention for the implementation of autonomous navigation. This paper presents the results of the analysis of the thematic search for titles of protection (applications, patents for inventions and useful models, certificates for computer programs) in relation to the means of autonomous navigation. The authors proposed to classify the elements of autonomous shipping means in three groups: the first group includes 14 subgroups of patents (246 patent documents), the second group includes 12 subgroups (164 patent patents), the third group includes 4 subgroups (26 patent documents). Distribution of patent documents related to the field of application of several unmanned vehicles for various purposes by years, by countries, by groups and subgroups is presented. The most popular areas were “ship management”, “ship alteration”, “cooling system”, “study of geographic elements of the terrain”, “shoreline survey”, etc. In the last two years of the studied patenting period, developments appeared in areas related to coastline surveying, pipe-laying, mine detection, ship alteration, cooling system and atypical vessel hull.