Allowing for more autonomy and automation, the e-SEA® Bridge product range aims to create a more user-friendly and safer working environment for the navigator. COO of SEAM, Otto Koch, explains how this development represents the start of a new era of autonomous operations at sea.
- SEAM has developed a solution/system which in theory can integrate any type of navigational tools or instrument-packages with different control systems and CCTV. The system is scalable and can easily be adapted to different project needs. Interfaces for remote control of equipment allow for greater integration between systems and provide opportunities for SMART and automated tasks, allowing the crew to focus completely on the task and situation at hand.
The process for the development of this solution and these products was highly user-oriented and based on the experiences and feedback from multiple navigators, who were a vital part of the development – especially in terms of console-design and control placements, he continues.
- When we first started with the development of what would later become e-SEA® Bridge, it was an initiative from one of our customers to standardize the bridge solution on multiple vessels in their fleet, to create a more recognizable interface and a more automated system for the navigator.
Before this, for each vessel the crew and navigators had to learn and adapt to many different systems and interfaces, which often had little to no integrations with each other – a solution that resulted in a complicated, time-consuming, and chaotic workspace. Standardized interfaces based upon open application functionality gave an advantage, Koch explains.
- We were the first to deliver a bridge solution with an HMI based on the OpenBridge design system, and we will continue to advocate for the development of HMI based on this system. Enabling the integration of as many systems/functions as applicable into one single solution, creates a user-friendly interface. For better efficiency, but also, and more importantly, for increased safety. In addition to this, we actively work with new technology to solve projects and challenges which have varying needs for autonomy.
Made possible with integrated autonomous functionality
SEAM's IAS System (Integrated Automation System) e-SEAMatic®, which is a big part of the e-SEA® Bridge solution and our e-SEAMatic EPMS (energy and power management), is scalable in terms of both breadth of system control and monitoring and in depth of complexity. The system is also designed to be modular in terms of system functionality.
Meaning that the system is geared towards economic upgradeability and flexible customization, achieved via an open architecture. This allows the user to access all or parts of the architecture without any proprietary constraints.
- Autonomous functionality on the bridge, represented as support systems for the navigator (OOW) are already available, and e-SEA® Bridge onboard integrates these support systems. Automated and standardized functions will therefore contribute to a safer and more efficient operation.
So far, SEAM has installed 13 e-SEA® Bridges onboard ferries with great success.
The future of autonomy at sea
SEAM believes the industry will experience an increase in automation and autonomous operations, that the systems onboard and ashore will be increasingly integrated, and support systems onboard will contribute to more sophisticated and more comprehensive operations. Product Developer at SEAM, Svein David Medhaug, points to the maritime industry as the optimal sector for realizing efficient and safe autonomous operations.
- We believe that the maritime market is more available for novel technologies such as autonomous operation. The vessels are relative slow steaming, and their highways are enormous. Compared to high density traffic for the automotive industry and the high speed and criticality for aviation, the maritime industry seems to be the perfect implementation sector for these technologies. This sector may easily use both preventive and reactive safety barriers to reduce or hinder incidents or accidents. “Low hanging fruits”, such as safety, efficiency, predictability, reliability, continuity, availability and so on is imminent. There is political willingness and an eagerness among the industry to create new business models and technology, and autonomy is definitively a big contender.
- SMART shipping is also autonomous operations, and automation is the enabler. To achieve full potential, we need to scale correctly – we need to push the potential. There are parts of autonomous operation which already are on a plateauof productivity. These building blocks (systems) need to be standardized and customized for production.
