The aim of the project is to develop an ICT-centred system for energy optimization of ships with a focus on working vessels and minor ferries. The system must be able to handle a flexible operation profile with many different modes and shifts. The development will be based on knowledge about practical operations of ships, mathematical models describing operational parameters together with the analysis of data collected on board during the operation.
The developed system must motivate the crew to actions promoting energy efficient operation of the vessel. There will therefore be a high crew involvement – focus at situation awareness – during the process of developing the system.
The system will be developed in close collaboration between the maritime industry, shipping companies, the university and a maritime academy educating and training maritime officers.
The work for enhancing energy efficient operation in working vessels has been dealt with as three interlinked areas, namely 1) logging and monitoring data, 2) increasing the awareness and involvement of the crew, 3) dissemination, education and training.
Data loggers have been developed and installed on board three different vessels and in SIMACs’ simulator and data are collected, stored and presented through the data portal ALDAQ.com. AutomationLab has during the project improved their data logger system for better communication to marine protocols, optimized the communication flow between ship and shore, developed API for exchange of data with third party systems and finally developed further functionalities and improved the scalability of their database solution.
A software system, a man-machine software platform, has been developed for handling data and visualizing the daily operation on board the vessels. The program will support the awareness of the ships’ crew of energy efficient operation by combining their knowledge about practical operation with information from logged data. Data and applications will assist the crew in assessing the effect of actions taken and hereby promote better practices by learning and reflection. The program is developed to fit each ship individually.
Two courses for training the energy efficiency have been developed. The first focuses on how energy-efficient operation can be trained in a ship bridge simulator. The course is based on a combination of simulator sessions and reflection workshops, using the concept of “learning-by-doing” for the awareness training and reflective learning. The second course will besides awareness training, include subjects such as “understanding data”, “planning, running, evaluation and documentation of tests performed on board”. This course is included in the package of elective courses for senior officer students at SIMAC, but the course can also be offered as a training course for experienced officers. Energy efficiency is an important topic in the maritime education. It is expected that the knowledge gained in the project will contribute to increased competences and secure a constant influx of people with knowledge of energy efficiency to the maritime industry.
