Wärtsilä has taken a further step towards developing its Smart Marine capabilities by successfully testing the remote control of ship operations.
The testing, which involved driving the vessel through a sequence of manoeuvres using a combination of Dynamic Positioning (DP) and manual joystick control, was carried out on 21 August off the North Sea coast of Scotland in collaboration with Gulfmark Offshore, the U.S. based operator who provided the vessel for the project. Although the test vessel was in the North Sea, the remote control navigating was carried out from the Wärtsilä office located in San Diego, California, 8000 km (5000 miles) away.
Standard Bandwidth Onboard Satellite Communication Used
Wärtsilä's Dynamic Positioning unit developed remote control capabilities in the early part of 2016, but this was the first test carried out on an offshore vessel. The vessel, the Highland Chieftain is an 80 metre platform supply vessel already fitted with a Wärtsilä Nacos Platinum package for Navigation, Automation and Dynamic Positioning systems, as well as a drives package from the same company. For the test, additional software was temporarily added to the DP system in order to route data over the vessel's satellite link to the onshore work station in California.
Gulfmark Offshore's Highland Chieftain was the vessel used for the test.
Most importantly, the testing was carried out using standard bandwidth onboard satellite communication. No land-based technology was used for the communications between the vessel and the remote operator work station. The retrofitting of the DP software was completed within 30 hours and with minimal inconvenience.
The successful test was conducted over an almost 4 hour period during which time the vessel was driven through a series of manoeuvres at both high and low speeds. All the test procedures carried out went as planned.
Reliable Remote Control and Monitoring Capabilities
Andrea Morgante, Head of Digital, Wärtsilä Marine Solutions adds: 'One of the first and most critical hurdles to overcome along the path to the enablement of intelligent shipping is to develop efficient and reliable remote control and monitoring capabilities, taking factors such as bandwidth limitations and cyber security into consideration. This test provides a clear indication that we are well on the way to achieving this.'
It is anticipated that Wärtsilä's development of successful remote access to ships will also enable virtual service solutions to customers needing tuning or testing of their DP systems. Furthermore, this solution will be used for other pilot projects, such as automated docking procedures.
Picture: The remote control navigating station was in California while the ship being controlled was off the coast of Scotland.
