Challenges of today’s shipping are to increase safety and security for ports and ship owners without unnecessarily increasing costs. Examples from other industries provide useful opportunities
Safety regulations and standards have obtained a high status in the maritime industry for more than one century. Security on[ds_preview] the other hand is a rather young area given that the standard framework – the ISPS-Code – was implemented in the early 2000s after the terror attacks in the USA. Over the past decade, both requirements on safety and security for port operators, charterers and ship owners have risen significantly. The maritime industry is depending on global transportation and other factors and is confronted with a steadily rising competition (both national and international). Those rising requirements and obligations often counteract the need for operational time- and cost-efficiency. Modern maritime safety and security solutions must therefore obtain a high level of effectiveness i.e. they must not delay any type of operation while providing cost efficiency at the same time since the willingness for investments is often limited.
Unmanned systems
Unmanned systems have evolved to a useful service solution for the maritime industry by providing a user friendly, easy to deploy, safe to operate and most importantly more and more affordable technology. Both flying systems – so-called UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) or diving systems ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicles) or AUV (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles) – have already found employment in various industrial areas in the maritime industry and related field of application such as sensitve industrial infrastructure. This technology provides visual information to places where human eyes can only be brought with considerable costs or danger. Furthermore, the highly advanced sensor and optical technology of unmanned systems has already surpassed the capabilities of human perception, i.e. with 4K quality, thermal or infrared optics. The potential ranges from general inspections of quays, gear infrastructure or emergency reaction (safety) over documentation of cargo movements or path planning (management) to surveillance (security) and other areas.
Below the surface first tests already provided promising results with regard to ROV conducted inspections. With visual results comparable to the standard of conventional divers and already existing upgrades like laser scaling systems and sonar technology, first official ROV assisted inspections are more than likely to come. There are two main aspects that will bring advantages to ship owners and fast offset the investments. First, after a collision or an unclear grounding situation an onboard ROV can directly provide visual data to port state officials and classification inspectors for decision support without risking unnecessary and expensive operative delays. Second, under certain conditions, the ROV is able to conduct hull inspections required by classification societies on a regular basis. Such an automated survey can either fully be accepted or at least lead to the permission to postpone the survey which is subject to the specific situation and society. Norwegian/German classification society DNV GL already led the way by its Regulatory News No. 24/2015, announcing that »in-water bottom surveys by means of ROV are accepted by DNV GL […] (where) […] acceptance is carried out on a case-to-case basis«. Technological developments, as it seems, have already surpassed the fiction of remotely conducted surveys opening a wide area of operative potentials.
3D localization
3D Localization systems are of great advantage in the logistics and warehousing industry, providing a reliable indoor service of path planning and inventory management. The technology runs totally wireless and provides an own network for independent in-house data transfer even in closed steel environments. That is particularly important for the use inside of ships. According to the producer’s data a triangular transmitter construction within 500m² still allows for a location accuracy of 2-3m of any transmitter. In case of an emergency onboard a ship with several thousands of passengers, such technology will provide a valuable service in saving time and lives through a proper and efficient evacuation management. When installed outside the cabins on the hallways of each deck, the data allows for identifying if a person remained in the cabin or already is at the nearest emergency spot without conflict with privacy issues. Furthermore passengers with handicaps or medical issues may voluntarily add specific information that allows the board personnel to properly allocate crew where it is needed the most. This aspect can also be applied in so to say conventional (meaning non-evacuation) safety scenarios were specialized first-aid personnel can be directed to an emergency spot anywhere on board. This example shows that maritime innovations do not inevitably have to be created from scratch but can also be adopted from successful implementations in other industries for different purposes.
E-Learning
With the implementation of the ISPS-Code maritime security efforts went ashore leading to a multitude of new and challenging legal requirements for port operators. One of the frequently repeating main challenges for PFSO (Port Facility Security Officer) is the quarterly implementation of port security training (Part B Article 18). Mandatory to these exercises is a gapless documentation of each individual staff’s training content and the successful participation that is audited annually by the Designated Authority and irregularly by EU inspections. For ports of a certain size with different operative areas, where dozens of staff work within ISPS areas in working shifts systems, this requirement (when taken seriously and conducted on a regular basis) includes a heavy workload for any PFSO. With the implementation of an automated contend based e-learning structure for ISPS purposes the overall training effort was reduced drastically while the training success was increased at the same time. An integrated database administers each individual’s training content while accomplishing the whole participation documentation at the same time, leading to a significant reduction of time that otherwise would have been dissipated by PFSO and port staff based on conventional classroom teaching. This reduction of unnecessarily spent time led to significant cost reductions for port operators as different cases of ISPS e-learning implementations successfully revealed.
Author: Michael Weickhardt
Sales & Business Development Manager
Condor International and Maritime
Services
m.weickhardt@condor-sicherheit.de
Michael Weickhardt