The EU-funded Sea Traffic Management (STM) project aims to standardize information exchange and enable interoperability between ships’ and ports’ systems. Now the validation phase has begun to demonstrate the concept in large-scale tests
With sea transport growing and operational efficiency becoming a major factor for logistics companies, the current fragmented approaches to traffic[ds_preview] management seem to be outdated. Even more so because technologies for digital data recording, transfer and analysis exist that would enable a more appropriate and efficient way. »A storm is brewing in the maritime industry about this«, says Anders Dalén of Viktoria Swedish ICT, Gothenburg at 2016 COMPIT conference in Lecce, Italy, pointing out the need for a holistic approach to traffic management. He and his fellow researchers of the Swedish nonprofit research institute are working on the STM project together with the Swedish Maritime Administration. This is part of the EU’s MONALISA 2.0 program, developing the Motorways of the Sea concept by implementing concrete pilot actions for safer navigation in the digital age.
The original idea of the project was to use AIS information to exchange routes between ships in the same vicinity, in order to build a common situational awareness. But by providing vessels with the ability to see each other’s planned routes, navigators also could see how surrounding vessels influence their own voyage. Using these data, other services would be able to produce valuable information and offer advice to vessels on their routes.
But to enable STM, standards are needed as well as a common interoperability infrastructure for equipment suppliers to build upon to facilitate the exchange of real-time data. »Today the use of real-time data for shipping management is fragmented, uncoordinated, and not very efficient«, the researchers find. Therefor they defined the main components of STM: Strategic Voyage Management (SVM) will optimize a company’s initial planning phase of a voyage by providing services based on a current awareness of all influencing factors relating to the planned voyage.
Dynamic Voyage Management (DVM) helps in optimizing the ongoing voyage. By using real-time information from all involved actors, the voyage plan becomes dynamic, changing along the way due to new facts and input from STM services and tools. The safety enhancing vessel-to-vessel tool that assists bridge personnel in finding the out intentions of other vessels based on Route Exchange is complemented by optimization, cross-checking and navigational assistance services involving actors outside the vessels.
Flow Management (FM) is optimization based on many or preferably all vessels in an area. It aims at increasing safety of the sea traffic flow, during all planning and executing phases, while taking other factors into account. Optimizing traffic is achieved by coordination, not control, always leaving the final decision to the Master, the researchers point out.
Port Collaborative Decision Making (PortCDM) enables digital collaboration among actors involved in a port call and the port and its surroundings. The collaboration is established by an information sharing platform to share intentions and actual occurrences, in real-time. PortCDM addresses port-internal coordination, voyage synchronization, port-to-port collaboration and hinterland integration. One driver for Port CDM is to enable increased predictability to enable just-in-time operations, optimal berth productivity, shorter turnaround times and higher capacity utilization.
Started in 2015 and running till the end of 2018 the STM Validation Project will demonstrate the STM concept in test beds in both the Nordic and Mediterranean Seas. »We aim to equip 300 ships with test equipment on board, 13 ports will establish the Port Collaborative Decision Making platform (PortCDM), and there will be five service centers to assist the ships,« explains Dalén. The aim is to understand the impact of instant information exchange, such as voyage plans and arrival times. The Route information will be exchanged using the MONALISA 2.0-developed RTZ format and other information formats will be tested which after validation will be proposed as new standards. All information exchange in the test beds will be compatible with the Maritime Cloud infrastructure, currently under development in the EffienSea2-project for the Baltic region.
The STM-researchers want to include ship systems from several suppliers to enable between different systems and now look for equipment suppliers that provide solutions that match STM requirements. A tender already has been released. Interoperability tests between systems and the digital infrastructure will start after this summer. The installation on board the test vessels is planned for the second half of 2017.
