The Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Atomflot" is working on a digital system that will control ships of the Northern Sea Route with the support of artificial intelligence. The first stage of this project will begin in 2025, and the second, which is also the final stage, in 2026.
AI will control how ships travel along the Northern Sea Route on artificial routes, choosing the optimal route instead of a human operator. The difficulty lies in the fact that it is impossible to calculate in advance how and where ice will appear on the ships' path. There are also questions about how to replace imported components with domestic ones when creating "electronic brains."
Russia's plans to abandon human participation in the management of ships on the Northern Sea Route became known in 2015. Then, as part of the National Technology Initiative, a roadmap was developed to create unmanned commercial maritime transport to serve this route. Later it became known that "Rosatom" had begun work on a project for such a vessel.
And in 2022, the Eastern Center for State Planning (FANU "Vostokgosplan") and "Rosatom" began work on creating a unified platform for digital services of the Northern Sea Route (EPCS SMP). The digital twin of the Northern Sea Route consists of several related models and allows you to calculate a comprehensive socio-economic forecast of its development under various scenario conditions. For example, it relies on the number of icebreakers in Russia, fluctuations in the ruble exchange rate, and other factors.
Earlier it became known how many ships Russia will need on the Northern Sea Route by 2030. These are 160 high ice class vessels: from gas tankers to coastal vessels. Many of them have yet to be laid down and built by shipbuilders.
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