French offshore giant Bourbon has penned a preliminary deal exploring the development of the world’s first fully-automated offshore support vessel.
Jacques de Chateauvieux’s Bourbon is working with Automated Ships and Kongsberg on the project, a statement said.
A memorandum of understanding is in place to support the building of the autonomous vessel, named Hronn, and a second phase will now examine subsidies to help finance the project.
Automated Ships has been working on the Hronn project since late last year, with the ship targeted at offshore energy as well as the scientific and fish-farming markets.
Gael Bodenes, chief operating office of Bourbon, said in a statement: “In this era of digitalization of industrial services, we are pleased to join this forward-looking project thus demonstrating the positioning of Bourbon as a world reference in terms of operational excellence and customer experience.”
Bourbon, which is closing in on a restructuring deal, has over 500 offshore vessels to its name.
Chateauvieux has also been involved in the development of the world’s first VLECs.
