Stena Line trials AI roro cargo planner to enhance safety 

Stena Line has supported development of stability management and cargo planning tools for its roro and ropax vessels to improve safety and shipment handling.

A digital solution, using artificial intelligence (AI) is being trialled on a vessel operating between Gothenburg, Sweden, and Kiel, Germany, before being implemented on more ships sailing on regular shortsea voyages in northern Europe.

Stena Line worked with Finland’s Napa to further advance and deploy an AI-assisted cargo loading and stability management device already used by cruise ship operators to prove its capabilities in the roro segment.

Roro and ropax operations pose a cargo management challenge unlike almost any other vessel type, according to Stena.

A single Stena ropax voyage can include up to 1,300 passengers, 90 trailers, 120 lorries, 45 containers, 180 cars, 25 cars with caravans, 30 mobile homes and 35 dangerous goods units, and in some cases, livestock and rail cargo.

For these voyages, officers plan cargo placement, verify stability, manage dangerous goods segregation requirements and confirm departure conditions within short turnaround windows, often in less than two hours, in ports.

Much of this work has been manual, and cargo manifests arrived by email, while information on dangerous goods is entered unit by unit into the loading computer.

Napa’s Stability for RoRo solution can do much of this automatically by connecting directly to the operator’s booking system, reducing time, raising accuracy and freeing up these officers for other important safety matters.

“The ability to import accurate booking data directly from our systems into the loading computer, with correct weights and cargo types, means we are making stability decisions based on real data, not estimates,” said Stena Line officer, David Svanström.

“The flexibility to switch between manual and auto mode means officers stay in control while the system does the heavy lifting on routine planning.”