Rolls-Royce has entered a deal with Swedish ferry company Stena Line to jointly develop a ship intelligent awareness system, which will provide an improved understanding of vessels' surroundings to their crews.
Rolls-Royce aims to undertake an approval of concept and make its intelligent awareness product commercially available later this year as part of the new agreement.
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The system will be designed to make vessels safer, easier and more efficient to operate than before.
The ship intelligent awareness system will be designed to combine data from a range of sensors with information from existing ship systems, including automatic identification system (AIS) and radar.
It will also be benefitted from Rolls-Royce’s experience in the Tekes-funded project Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA). Data from sources such as global databases will also be used.
Rolls-Royce marine digital and systems director Asbjørn Skaro said: “We have been exploring and testing how to combine sensor technologies effectively and affordably for some time.
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By GlobalData“Pilot projects such as this will allow us to see how they can be best adapted to the needs of a commercial vessel and its crew, and allow us to develop a product which better serves both.
“Successful pilots and product development programmes are also an important step towards the further development of remote and autonomous vessels, and meeting our goal of having a remote controlled ship in commercial use by the end of the decade.”
The company has also been carrying out a series of tests of sensors in various operating and climatic conditions on board Finferries’ 65m double-ended ferry Stella.
The ferry currently operates between Finland’s Korpo and Houtskär islands situated in the Archipelago Sea.
Image: Rolls-Royce’s new intelligent awareness systems will make vessels safer, easier and more efficient to operate. Photo: courtesy of Rolls-Royce plc.
