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SOFTWAREFLAGSHIP project draws to a closeThe EU-backed FLAGSHIP maritime technology project, which has launched a number of new innovationsfor the shipping industry, has come to a conclusion – leaving a wide-ranging legacy of new products behindRegular readers of Digital Ship willbe aware of some of the maritimetechnology tools that have beenintroduced over the course of 2011 by theFLAGSHIP project, a pan-European maritimetransport initiative part funded bythe EU.FLAGSHIP is a consortium of morethan 40 European maritime organisationsaiming to develop technologies that willassist in improving safety, environmentalfriendliness and competitiveness ofEuropean maritime transport.The emphasis of the project has been onon-board systems and procedures, shipmanagement systems on shore, and theimpact of new technology, communicationinterfaces and standards and regulations.Now, as of May 31st 2011, the FLAG-SHIP project has concluded, just over sixyears since its inception and having facilitatedthe research and development of noless than 10 new maritime technology solutions,from multiple European companies.The new tools that have been developedhave covered a variety of differentfunctions ranging from engine monitoring,hull condition forecasting and terminallogistics (see Digital Ship March 2011),to safety management, fuel consumptionand regulatory compliance (Digital ShipApril 2011).However, the FLAGSHIP partners havenot stopped there, and have added tothese successes with the introduction of afinal round of new technologies related toIntegrated Navigation Systems andimproving passenger safety.Integrating navigationThe first of these new tools, called FLAG-SHIP-Bridge Support, looks to providefurther integration of nautical informationon the bridge with the aim of supplyingimproved navigation information to theofficer of the watch.This new system will integrate NAV-TEX messages, radar and AIS targets intoa single display, which the partners hopewill speed up hazard analysis, improvetracking accuracy and reduce the load onthe Duty Officer.Currently most ships receive navigationaland meteorological warnings andforecasts, as well as urgent marine safetyinformation via NAVTEX, from a standaloneunit.The Automatic Identification System(AIS), used for identifying and locatingvessels by electronically exchanging datawith other nearby ships and VTS stations,is often a separate or only basically integratedunit.This means that the Duty Officer hasto constantly monitor multiple displays,cross referring and mentally combiningand analysing the hazard information.FLAGSHIP-Bridge Support aims toremove this requirement and give theofficer all the data required in a singleplatform.Vessels that also run the Flagship-RCS(Regulatory Compliance Support, seeDigital Ship April 2011) system will benefitfrom updates via Notices to Mariners andlocal navigational data from the NAVTEXsystem, allowing even more integration ofinformation.The system can be delivered via tabletPCs, ensuring pertinent information isdelivered to the officer wherever he is.Trials of the new tool have been successfullycarried out and the technologyhas already been incorporated into SAMElectronics’ NACOS 5th GenerationIntegrated Navigation and CommandSystems, and partly also into the newNACOS Platinum Generation.AIS target merger technology will beavailable in SAM’s NACOS Platinum systems,scheduled to be out this year, whilea portable conning unit will also be availablein 2011 as a Tablet PC.The FLAGSHIP-Bridge Support projectwas led by SAM Electronics in Germany,and supported, delivered and trialled inconjunction with BMT in the UK,Kongsberg in Norway and CONSAR inItaly and Minoan Lines in Greece.Safety monitoringThe second new tool recently announcedby FLAGSHIP is an integrated ship toshore system for the control and monitoringof passenger safety functions onboardship, utilising both fixed and mobile assets.FLAGSHIP-ISEMS (Integrated Safetyand Emergency Management System)aims to enhance the onboard ability tohandle emergencies by making use of realtimecommunication between the ship andonshore facilities.The tool permits both parties to have afull overview of the actual developing situationand allows them to exchangerequests, advice and instructions in realtime. FLAGSHIP hopes that this willenable effective assistance to be providedby shore teams in an emergency situation,as well as making drills and training muchmore effective.The FLAGSHIP-ISEMS software evaluateshow available information, from supportfunctions residing on shore as well aswith the crew on the bridge and in theengine, can be best utilised.This is envisioned as being part of a cooperativedecision support regimebetween the ship and its shore basedorganisation on one side and other interestedparties, such as port and coastalauthorities, on the other.The technology is also expected to beapplied to training and drills, to be used torecord the development of situations –emergency or drills – including deploymentof resources and use of the safetymanagement systems.This can be used to analyse the potentialfor improvement as well as in thedevelopment of new and improved trainingscenarios. If an accident should occur,the system will also record the developmentof this scenario and enable any relevantlessons to be learned.Per Norman Oma, section manager,software for Norwegian FLAGSHIP partnerAutronica Fire and Security, commented:“The FLAGSHIP-ISEMS projectteam has developed new concepts toenable such ship to shore cooperation,mainly based on a new and innovativeelectronic plotting table and associatedapplications.”“The results have been well receivedand elements have already been implementedon board ships in service.”The FLAGSHIP–ISEMS project wasled by Autronica, and supported, deliveredand trialled in conjunction with Lodicand MARINTEK, both also of Norway, aswell as Minoan Lines of Greece, BMT inFor Station711 ISP’s list in your region,please contact sales@station711.comwww.station711.comthe UK and CONSAR in Italy.Past successesThese new tools will add to the range oftechnological innovations that FLAGSHIPpartners have introduced over the course ofthe project to improve the efficiency andeffectiveness of maritime transport, many ofwhich have already been incorporated intocommercial maritime technology products.Sub projects led by various businessesfrom all around Europe included FLAG-SHIP-TCI, led by Marintek in Norway,which was concerned with creating KeyPerformance Indicators and TechnicalCondition Indices to enable fleet managersto compare the performance of their vessels,with each other and with benchmarks.This has led to the development of acommercial product by DNV, called TopMonitoring, which monitors main engines.Commercial products monitoring auxiliaryengines are expected to be launched laterthis year from two other separate FLAG-Cost reductionto2Mb2MbtoUp Up*Experience of up to 2MbAll your IT, HR and operatiosmart@sea - a smartSimplified operationsDigital June/July 2011 page 28
Digital ShipSHIP partners, Danaos and Wärtsilä.In the UK, BMT led a sub project calledFLAGSHIP-HCA which addressed theprocess of surveys and dry-dock repairs.This resulted in the German partner,Germanischer Lloyd introducing a newcommercial tool called ‘Hull Manager’.Germanischer Lloyd also led a projectcalled FLAGSHIP-EEM which focussed onenergy savings during sailing, which hasresulted in a patent being secured to covera new process of measuring power consumptionduring operations. Commercialproducts are planned for 2011.Alarm Filtering was addressed by theFLAGSHIP-iCAS sub project, led byKongsberg in Norway, dealing with theproblem of large cascades of alarms.Kongsberg says that the market hasresponded very positively to the technology,and that several orders have alreadybeen taken.Led by MJC2, a UK business, FLAGSHIP-RTS addressed real time container schedulingand matching imports and exportsin order to save unnecessary truck trips.FLAGSHIP says that this has alreadyresulted in large savings for ChinaShipping and the Port of Valencia, whileseveral commercial solutions have sincebeen introduced.A sub-project called FLAGSHIP-DSSled by the University of Strathclyde in theUK dealt with the determination of anIndex of Vulnerability.bandwidth*@Firewall Acceleration & Compressionbandwidth over FB500 terminal@n requirements in one boxway to communicateA secure networkCrewnetIts presentation to the crew in a recent7-week demonstration led to an immediateimprovement in practices which sawthe Index fall by 45 per cent in a singleweek - six orders from a wide variety ofparties have already been received.Continued innovationWith the project now having come to aclose, Herman de Meester, project coordinatorfor FLAGSHIP and deputy secretarygeneral of the European CommunityShipowners' Association (ESCA), praisedthe work done by the partners over the sixyears of maritime research and development,and expressed his satisfaction at thenew technologies that have been introducedto the market as a result.“With input from organisations asdiverse as shipowners, shipyards, equipmentmanufacturers and classificationsocieties and research institutes the subprojectsrun under the FLAGSHIP bannerhave been able to deliver tangible resultsthat have already added value to theEuropean maritime industry,” he said.“Integrated R&D in the maritimedomain is necessary in order to delivernew solutions in the fields of environment,efficiency and safety.”“Furthermore there is an absolute needfor innovation in order to deliver thesenew solutions in a cost effective and commerciallyviable way so that the maritimeindustry in the European Union can stayFor your smart@sea,please contact your service providerand ask for Station711 smart@seaahead of its competitors across the world.”By most measurements it seems to bequite clear that the project has been a success,with Mr de Meester pointing to thefact that, while all 15 FLAGSHIP sub-projectswere established with specific aims,only three of them have not quite deliveredwhat was expected.“As this is a research project, a successrate of around 50 per cent would have beenexcellent, considering the cutting edgework that was undertaken – the 80 per centsuccess rate achieved in practice is testamentto the hard work and diligencedemonstrated by the partners,” he said.“As well as meeting the vast majority ofthe objectives associated with sub-projectdelivery FLAGSHIP delivered a raft ofother benefits. New relationships betweenpartners in the project have been established,a stronger EU platform for furtherimprovement in maritime business andnew standards has been developed andimportant input to IMO legislation hasbeen made.”“Furthermore we have strengthenedEuropean maritime competitiveness as wellas raising awareness, knowledge and theinterest in the maritime business sector.”Mr de Meester notes that, while he considersthe European maritime business sectorto already be very efficient and wellplaced to drive innovation, generating majorimprovement across the sector may sometimesrequire a shake up of the “status quo.”“There are some issues that can onlybe addressed and improvements made ifeverybody pulls together,” he said. “It issimply not possible for a simple organisationto generate enough momentum onits own.”“Innovation and exchange of ideasbetween sectors and markets that wouldnot usually interact is a huge positive forwww.stelvio.comwww.canfornav.comFLAGSHIP and would be impossible toachieve in a forum that promotes opencommunication and sharing of informationwithout the structure created by the EU.”EU investment in the FLAGSHIP projecthas obviously been a factor in drivingits success, though Mr de Meester is keento point out that this kind of public moneycannot be a substitute for private enterpriseinvestment in R&D.“In fact, the Commission support onlyrepresents about 4-5 per cent of the totalresearch funding in the European maritimecluster, mainly at company level,” heexplained.“However, maritime is a very competitivebusiness and there are often instanceswhen restrictions on time or money withinindividual organisations preclude takingon larger and more all-encompassingR&D tasks.”Looking to the future after FLAGSHIP,Mr de Meester hopes that new researchand innovation projects will come in totake its place.He particularly highlights IMO initiativesand the European Commission’s2050 transport strategy for Europe, whichhave both targeted a reduction in greenhouseemissions of 75-80 per cent over thenext 39 years, as areas where continuedresearch would be welcome.“When this is viewed alongsideFLAGSHIP’s achievements in reducing fuelconsumption by 1-5 per cent and reducinggreenhouse gases by 2-4 per cent, as well asenhancing engine performance by up to 5per cent it becomes clear how much morework needs to be done,” Mr de Meester said.“However it also highlights the importanceof research projects like FLAGSHIPwhich are doing the hard work required todevelop solutions that will help address themaritime challenges of the 21st century.” DSStelvio and Canfornav launchemission reporting systemStelvio, a Montreal based software developmenthouse, has jointly developed amaritime emissions reporting modulewithin its ShipDecision system, in conjunctionwith Canadian ship owner andoperator Canfornav.In joining the project Canfornav soughtto automate the collection of its emissionsperformance data, which is annually reportedin compliance with the Green Marineemissions reporting guidelines. GreenMarine, of which Canfornav is a memberand ShipDecision a partner, is a voluntaryenvironmental programme of the Canadianand American marine industry.ShipDecision is a maritime ‘Software asa Service’ (SaaS) solution that is designedto support the organisation of the sharingand use of information among businesspartners in the maritime sector.Accessible via internet and protectedthrough encryption, ShipDecisionprocesses data, documents and communicationsrelated to individual voyages.Stelvio and Canfornav collaborativelyset up the Ship Decision ComprehensiveEmissions Performance Reporting (CEPR)Module. The companies state that theCEPR Module compiles operational datafrom vessel records, making it faster andsimpler to generate emissions reports on aper vessel basis, as well as across the fleet.The reporting technology addressespollutant air emissions, specifically: SOxemissions (level 3); and NOx emissions(level 3) and also calculates GHG emissions(levels 3,4,5).“By automating the collection of thedata we need for Green Marine reporting,we can monitor the performance of ourvessels on a daily basis,” says Errol Francis,vice president operations, Canfornav.“It also allows us to provide a carbonfootprint, on a daily basis, to customerswho want that information.”Albert Carbone, president and CEO ofStelvio, also commented that his company“had already deployed an off-line reportingmodule for Noon Reports, which is usedacross the fleet. The Emissions Reportingproject was a natural offshoot of that.”“We saw the opportunity to build aModule that would not only permitCanfornav to meet their annual GreenMarine reporting requirements, but thatcould also give them a daily snapshot oftheir ‘Green Position’.”Digital Ship June/July 2011 page 29
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