A Finland government minister officially opened a research centre that will develop autonomous ship and vessel remote control technologies. Finnish minister of transport and communications Anne Berner opened Rolls-Royce’s new centre in Turku, Finland.

She said this research and development (R&D) centre would “help achieve our goal of digitalising the country’s transport sector” and drive production of “autonomous vehicles and vessels as a future means of transport”.

Rolls-Royce president for marine Mikael Makinen opened the centre, adding that it would help all stakeholders, partners and customers to “be able to see here what a remote controlled and autonomous maritime future could look like and work with us to shape the future”.

It opened the Turku centre just two months after opening a similar one in Ålesund, Norway, which Marine Electronics & Communications reviewed in November 2017. Both can be used by Rolls-Royce to demonstrate to its customers “the very tangible benefits of what is often considered an intangible technology” said Mr Makinen.

At the Turku centre, Rolls-Royce will focus on the use of artificial intelligence in future remote and autonomous shipping operations.