South Korean shipbuilder Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering said Tuesday it has successfully completed the trial of its autonomous navigating system for ships.

DSME conducted a two-day test of its testing ship, called DAN-V, equipped with its own autonomous navigating system last week near Jebu Island in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province.

The shipbuilder has been preparing for the future market of self-cruising vessels by signing a memorandum of understanding with Gyeonggi Free Economic Zone Authority, the local government of Siheung, and Seoul National University to develop and demonstrate autonomous navigating technology.

Self-cruising vessels are considered to be the next game changer in the marine transportation industry, according to DSME.

In response, domestic shipbuilders have continuously worked on developing such technology but are yet to carry out tests on waters with actual ships equipped with the autonomous navigating system.

DAN-V, built with a similar mechanism to a large vessel, is capable of collecting marine navigation data that can be collected by a large vessel which makes it capable of verifying whether the self-cruising system can be used for commercial tankers or not.

During last week’s demonstration process, the vessel passed various tests such as turning the engine on and off after receiving an order from the control tower, cruising according to the planned route, avoiding collisions, and returning to the route once an obstacle is gone.

“The test turned out successful and we also have acquired Level 3 autonomous navigation classification by Lloyds Register. Next year, we will test the self-cruising system on a commercial vessel and acquire Level 4 by 2024,” said an official from DSME.