Our laboratory is conducting research on route optimisation for multiple vessels through ongoing discussions with Dr. Takahiro Majima, Head of the Knowledge and Data Systems Department, and researchers Dr. Keiji Sato and Dr. Ryohei Sawada of the National Maritime Research Institute (NMRI).

On 20 May 2026, we held a meeting at NMRI. During the visit, we observed a demonstration of automatic ship handling currently being studied at NMRI, as shown in the photograph, as well as a practical-scale full-mission ship-handling simulator used for the evaluation and testing of autonomous ships in the unmanned ship operation project “MEGURI2040”.

Going forward, we aim to develop improved reinforcement learning methods while considering more practical control approaches.