Kotug is proud to have won the ‘Autonomous & Remote Operations Award’ for her focus on true technical innovation. The jury of industry experts has awarded the prize for Kotug’s Remote Controlled sailing–project, which was one of three shortlisted projects. The purpose of the award is to draw more attention to research work, that often stays unrecognized by the wider industry. This award is part of the Marine Propulsion Award 2019, and was presented at the Sulphur Cap 2020 Conference and Exhibition on 8 May in Amsterdam.

This award is a recognition for the research done to make autonomous tug sailing possible. This will improve the safety and efficiency of the tug operation in general, especially in areas dealing with dangerous goods and oil & gas products. In 2018 two successful tests have been conducted by Tug Training & Consultancy, a professional tug training and world-leading towage expertise provider.

Kotug believes that unmanned remote controlled ships will be the first step to ultimately unmanned autonomous shipping; various simple operations in remote locations can already be done from remote controlled stations.

The unmanned sailing operation is a joint industry project that has been realized with the following stakeholders:

• KOTUG International
• Rotortug B.V.
• OnBoard
• M2MBlue part of Wireless Logic
• Alphatron Marine
• Veth Propulsion