The 15th International Conference on Computer and IT Applications in the Maritime Industries (COMPIT) will be held from 9–11 May 2016 in Lecce,Italy. A preview by organizer Volker Bertram of Tutech Innovation and DNV GL
First held in the year 2000, COMPIT has established itself as a key conference in information technology (IT) for the[ds_preview] maritime industries, bringing together software developers and users. Most participants come from industry, reflecting the practical relevance of the event.
The main trends in IT for the maritime industry are:
We get smart & cooperative. Communication and cooperation make for smarter solutions – in business, in design, in operation. »Smart & connected« is a recurrent theme in very diverse forms. Key players cooperate to create new solutions for customers, not unlike airlines with their alliances and code-sharing. Robots and autonomous systems cooperate with each other and with humans – giving us a glimpse into future cyber-shipping.
Big Data gets bigger. Big Data uses relatively simple algorithms, but huge amounts of data, fuelled by AIS and on-board sensors. Collecting and storing all this data is easy. The challenge lies in turning the data into useful information. The business field is developing very rapidly – there seems to be almost a »gold rush« spirit in the industry. Indeed, Big Data mining may produce some real nuggets.
Virtual Reality – It’s a different game now. We have to thank our kids – the video game industry has provided cost-effective software and hardware solutions for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. Now the maritime industries are adapting the options and bringing them to good use – whenever the human needs to be involved in simulations. User-friendly bridges or training on surveys? The answer is now clearly based on Virtual Reality.
COMPIT covers three full days, each with four sessions:
Day 1: New Design Processes, Simulation-based Design, Interdisciplinary Simulations and Optimization and Hydrodynamic Optimization
Day 2: Smart & Cooperative – Design & Production, Autonomous (Seeing) Systems, Smart & Cooperative Ship Operation, Virtual Reality
Day 3: Asset Management, Smart Energy Management, Big Data I & II
Smart & cooperative –
both software and people
Despite numerous attempts, there is no single monolithic software program that is optimal for all tasks. Coupling dedicated software packages is a better strategy than trying to develop the »one code to solve all problems«. In short: Cooperation beats integration. This is demonstrated in a variety of papers.
Key enablers in this context are open software architectures and open-source codes. Morais & Waldie (SSI) describe »Open Architecture Applications: The Key to Best-of-Breed Solutions«, where the key is open-architecture software which supports easy plug-and-play interfaces to other software. There is a general trend to be »open«, i.e. not using proprietary data formats and sometimes even disclosing the source code allowing others to modify and expand the software. Mannarini et al. (Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici) present »VISIR: A Free and Open-Source Model for Ship Route Optimization«. The paper fits in with the open spirit of COMPIT (with its freely downloadable proceedings) perfectly: The authors offer a GPLv3 (General Public License) licensing of the source code and detailed model documentation on open-access journals. This way, numerical methods, approximations used and their range of application are documented and made available to research and business applications. In a similar vein, Chaves & Gaspar (Ålesund University College) give us an »Open Source and Web Based Ship 3D Virtual Simulator« for nautical training applications. The key advantage of their approach consists in adapting the simulation tool requirements to a common user platform (web browser), instead of forcing the user to comply with the tool requirements of common commercial nautical simulators (operational system, file format or commercial tool).
Simulation – the engineer’s best friend
Smart and cooperative also aptly describes the trends in simulation-based design. A plug-and-play culture is developing where software codes and companies learn to work smoothly together to provide better or new solutions. A typical example comes in the recent cooperation of Hydrocomp and Friendship Systems (since COMPIT 2014) which resulted in »Real Cost Savings for a Waterjet-driven Patrol Craft Design Using a CAESES-NavCad Coupled Solution« by MacPherson & Harries. Arguably the most interesting aspect here is the cost reduction achieved in this industry project, looking both at the hull and the propulsion.
Mallol (Numeca) & Bertram (DNV GL) present »Trends in CFD Illustrated Exemplarily for Competitive Sailing Yachts«. These trends include automated work processes, adaptive grid refinement, highly parallel computing, and multidisciplinary analyses. The progress in CFD capabilities has already led to the abandoning of model tests altogether for America’s Cup yachts. The highly parallel computing becomes affordable even for small and medium companies in the maritime industries, thanks to cloud computing. In »Cloud Computing for CFD based on Novel CAE Software Containers«, Gentzsch et al. (UberCloud, Numeca and CPU 24/7) show how e.g. Glosten Associates use cloud computing for CFD predictions of ship resistance. Cannavacciuolo (CD-adapco) looks at more mundane, but not less interesting applications of wind propulsion, in »A Novel Way to Harness Wind Energy on Ships: How CFD Helps Foster Innovation«. The paper describes an optimization study for a novel wind-assistance concept. The study takes different wind speeds and directions into account, striving for the best compromise between variables to optimize fuel consumption over realistic operational profiles. In »Design Optimization using Fluid-Structure Interaction and Kinematics Analyses«, Korbetis et al. (BETA CAE Systems) combine CFD and structural analysis in the design of a free-fall lifeboat. The short-term extreme loads during water impact require a strong coupling between these two classical simulation disciplines.
Simulation-based design continues to grow, both in terms of extent and variety. Besides established methods such as finite-element methods and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), new design approaches are being adopted from other industries, e.g. from the financial industry for the treatment of risk and uncertainty as Erikstad et al. (NTNU) with »Real Options Analysis for Air Emission Regulations Compliance under Uncertainty«. Here instruments of corporate finance for decision making under uncertainty are applied to maritime engineering applications.
But as simulations become more realistic and more accurate, they also become more time-consuming. For optimization projects, the solution seems to be meta-models, a.k.a. surrogate models. Literally building models on top of models, it means in simple parlance using trends predictions fitted to »hard« points coming from expensive simulations. During the optimization the trend predictions are updated as more hard points come in. There are various ways to get such trend predictions, differing in required effort, robustness, and accuracy. The power of meta-models is demonstrated in »Bulbous Bow Optimization through a Complete Open-Source Framework« by Bailardi et al. (DLTM, Wolfdynamics, Optimad) for hull optimization or »Evaluation of Surrogate Models of Internal Energy Absorbed by Oil Tanker Structure during Collision and/or Grounding« by Prebeg et al. (University of Zagreb) for structural optimization. The latter evaluate various meta-model approaches for their application.
Virtual Reality – it’s a different game now
In some applications, we are not only interested in the physical behavior of objects, but focus on human behavior in maritime environments. In these cases, Virtual Reality (VR) is the magic word. But … »Real men don’t do Virtual Reality. This is something for teenage kids and granola-eating programmers.« Wrong! The game industry is bigger than the maritime industry and offers some great solutions for us Real Engineers, both in terms of software and hardware. Several leading companies use these options for pioneering applications. 2016 is widely expected to be a breakthrough year for VR applications as such, due to the launch of affordable headsets such as Oculus (owned by Facebook).
The diversity of applications is as fascinating as the level of realism achieved by CGI (computer generated imagery). Zrodowski & Feiner (DNV GL) present a perfect example with the »SurveySimulator [SuSi] – A Virtual Reality Training Tool for Ship Surveys«. SuSi offers virtual environments for ships and offshore structures. Trainees can practice in VR finding various deficiencies (technical and safety-related) simulated in the virtual environment. Experience has shown that this approach to training is readily accepted by practitioners as an ideal tool for Class and survey-related tasks. Thomson (AVEVA) presents »Using Game Technology to Create an Affordable Way to Familiarize Crew and Passengers on Board Large Complex Vessels«. Thomson looks at how combining gaming technology with CAD generated maritime models can be used in standardized familiarization»games« for seafarers and passengers. While he describes the application to cruise vessels in detail, the paper is also worth reading for his look at how virtual worlds may support marine operations in many ways in the near future. In another paper with focus on passenger vessels, MacKinnon et al. (Memorial University) show that »Active Learning Employing Virtual Reality Improves Mustering Performance on Simulated Offshore Installations«. The session makes a convincing case for VR-based training.
Asset management –
a hidden IT gem
Increasingly, we also see business IT and technical IT getting connected and the result makes for smarter shipping. Asset management is as old as shipping, but we can learn a trick or two from younger industries, such as the offshore industry. In order to efficiently manage the operations, maintenance and safety of large and complex assets in remote locations, the operators of these assets need quick and easy access to specific information often buried within piles of documents, drawings, databases, photos, laser scans and other data. Organising this data in such a way that the user can intuitively locate, discover and view the relevant information has been a challenge for owner-operators in the plant, offshore and marine industries.
Gordon (AVEVA) presents in »Marine Asset Visualization« an intuitive visualization solution for life-cycle asset management of ships or offshore structures. AVEVA NET Gateways provide the link to the various information sources, potentially allowing access to virtually any type of data from third-party applications. The underlying 3D model of the asset is combined with continuous operational information from monitoring systems, with better and more intuitive visualisation of performance and status indicators.
Jamt et al. (Marine Cybernetics – A DNV GL company) take the concept of asset modelling a step further, envisioning »Digital Twins for Design, Testing and Verification throughout a Vessel’s Life Cycle«. A digital twin of a vessel consists of simulation models that are continuously updated to mirror the condition of its real-life twin. The prototype simulation platform is an open architecture allowing integration of external and internal simulation models. The idea is to collect simulation models from design and re-use not only data, but also complex models, throughout the lifetime of the ship, e.g. for retrofits, emergency response, performance monitoring, etc. The idea is not new, but seeing the digital twin finally coming to (test) life is noteworthy.
What do performance monitoring, cooperative schemes between ports and ships, condition-based maintenance and asset management have in common? They all need frequent and smooth data exchange, which in turn benefits from standards providing »a common language«. The industry should thus welcome Vatteroni’s »Shipdex – A Standard to Exchange Technical Data between Owners and Suppliers« as it offers an independent, non-proprietary and free-of-charge standard protocol. Shipdex intends to decrease the traditional effort in importing technical data into corporate IT systems like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) or CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System). Based on xml and a neutral data exchange format (in layman’s terms: it is easy to import and export the data on any computer). The paper briefly introduces the history of Shipdex, its main business rules, and key advantages for assorted stakeholders. A standard Shipdex dataset is given for illustration.
Mr. Spock would say: Fascinating!
The completely unmanned ship may take a while to come, but assorted autonomous systems are already paving the way to future low-crew/no-crew operations. »Smart and cooperative« describes once again the trend, where machines and humans cooperate in evolving cyber-technologies. Let’s fast-forward by a decade or two and suppose we have unmanned ships sailing along with conventionally crewed ships. Mediavilla Varas et al. (Lloyd’s Register) look at such a mixed scenario in »Autonomous COLREGs Compliant Ship Navigation, Using Bridge Simulators and an Actual Unmanned Vessel«. The robotic collision avoidance algorithm was tested first in a simulator environment with other human-controlled ships; then sea trials with an autonomous unmanned surface vessel were performed. Yet another milestone towards unmanned shipping. But wait, there is more to come. How about robots that cooperate with divers (e.g. in underwater inspection and cleaning tasks) and understand gestures (just like other divers)? Or avatars (our stand-in personalities in virtual worlds) that mimic gestures and facial expressions that we use as part of our non-verbal communication? See the first in »Underwater Robotics for Diver Operation Support: The CADDY project« of Bibuli et al. (CNR-ISSIA) and the latter in »Efficient Use of Virtual and Mixed Reality in Conceptual Design of Maritime Work Places« of Nordby & Hjelseth (Oslo School Architecture). Mr. Spock would say: Fascinating!
But maybe we should first learn to communicate among ourselves, say ship-to-ship, ship-to-port or port-to-port. Various independent players seemed to have similar ideas for »cooperative« information frameworks to use port and shipping lane infrastructure in a smarter way. The efficiency of ports depends on the cooperation of many stakeholders. Big Data technologies facilitate collecting large amounts of business-critical data from different sources including sensors, mobile devices, and operating systems. STM (Sea Traffic Management) is a follow-up project to Monalisa 2.0 promising the move from concept to prototype implementation of a maritime IT infrastructure. The focus is on safer and more efficient shipping looking at bottlenecks in shipping lanes (e.g. between Denmark and Sweden) and ports. Dalén et al. (Viktoria Swedish ICT, Swedish Maritime Administration) describe in »Engineering Requirements for a Maritime Digital Infrastructure – A Sea Traffic Management Perspective« some lessons learnt within STM and point out the need for a governance body to maintain and develop the specification.
So far, the concept builds on voluntary information sharing by stakeholders. This requires some critical mass for stakeholders to join the information sharing platform. However, a core problem in ports is still the willingness to share information among competing and non-competing organizations. Dausendschön & Mestl (DNV GL) present in »Port ETA Prediction based on AIS Data« an alternative approach, supplementing actively shared information with AIS data and other publicly available information. The key here is smartly bringing the data together and condensing it into business intelligence for the maritime industry. Which brings us to Big Data.
Big Data has gotten bigger
»Big Data is like teenage sex: everyone talks about it, nobody really knows how to do it,« (Dan Ariely, professor at Duke University). Well, last year at Compit we started talking about it and applications have noticeably matured and proliferated. One of the most revolutionary IT developments is Big Data, affecting transport efficiency and maintenance schemes. Much of this data is provided by the growing number of robots and automation processes discussed above. How can we avoid being swamped by these data? Essentially only computers can cope with the data flow coming from other computers, using repeated filtering and processing, separating »gold dust« and rubbish. The key is generally to turn Big Data into meaningful small data, simple trends or even single numbers (»small data«) that we can use to make good decisions. The applications seen so far fall largely into two categories: smarter maintenance schemes and smarter operation schemes. Some of the maritime Big Data pioneers are already presenting second-generation applications which combine multiple data sources with intelligent data fusion and integration with other maritime software. In »Big Data in Shipping – Challenges and Opportunities«, Rødseth et al. (Marintek) give some examples of successful applications, but also discuss current constraints of using Big Data in the shipping industry: low bandwidth, costly satellite communication links, issues of data ownership, etc. They also look at an organization’s ability to absorb and make use of the collected information. Etienne & Sayers (Dell) see »The Internet of Things and Connected Ships« as a game-changer for the maritime industry, helping customers to integrate operations, reduce production costs, improve safety, and effectively implement and manage large-scale change. They address challenges, similar to Rødseth et al., but present a pragmatic approach to getting started today. De Masi et al. (Saipem) show an interesting application to »Corrosion Prediction by Hierarchical Neural Networks«. The specific application in this paper is for pipes. Corrosion prediction models so far have been based on linear or parabolic approximations of data clouds. Neural nets can approximate arbitrary patterns and it is that little progress that sometimes make for much more useful information. Ramsden (Akzonobel) presents in »AIS, Antifouling and Big Data« an application for hull performance monitoring. Gunnsteinsson (Marorka) examines in »Enhancing Performance through Continuous Monitoring« how sampling method and frequency impact data-based business decisions. Results show the superiority of continuous monitoring over noon-reporting.
Everything is connected
Manno et al. (DNV GL) present in »Asset and Operations Management in the Era of Connectivity and Big Data: A Maritime Industry Focus« a framework for a maritime Big Data ecosystem considering the whole lifecycle of a marine asset and its digital twin, from design to scrapping. Abbasian et al. (Ålesund University, Ulstein International) close the circle with a paper going in the opposite direction: »Improving Early OSV Design Robustness by Applying Adaptive Distributed Clustering in Ship Lifecycle Big Data«. They focus on how Big Data (from operational monitoring) can improve further design competitiveness and reduce design uncertainty. This pretty much sums it up. Gone are the days where it was simple to cluster papers on design, production and operation. Papers at COMPIT 2016 connect in multiple dimensions, sharing numerical techniques, applications or industry segments. The product life-cycle idea becomes reality and it is reflected in the best-of-practice IT solutions that we see at COMPIT.
Volker Bertram
