Sea Traffic Management information is used to share and optimise voyages to mitigate collision risks
Carnival Corp has deployed a safety information sharing service across its fleet to optimise voyages and reduce the risk of collisions.
The cruise ship group has implemented Sea Traffic Management (STM) into its fleet management and operations software to share voyage data with ports and other shipping companies.
This follows trials using STM information exchange on ships within the Costa Crociere and Aida brands. These ships use STM-supported standardised formats and interfaces of exchange information with other users in northern Europe.
From this month, all of Carnival’s cruise ships will use STM functions to improve situational awareness and mitigate the risk of accidents.
STM was incorporated into Costa Crociere’s fleet operations centre software Neptune. This enables Carnival to interact with other STM services, ports and shore centre operators, said Carnival Maritime IT director Franco Caraffi, who is part of the Information Technology Costa Group.
“With our fleet operations centres we have further increased safety on board our ships,” he said. “With STM we can use this solution to share voyage plans with all other STM-enabled services, such as route optimisation and vessel traffic services centres to create a shared situational awareness.”
Neptune software evaluates voyage optimisation suggestions received by shore centres through the maritime digital infrastructure.
Carnival then shares voyage plans automatically with vessel traffic services along the route.
Costa Crociere was an integral part of the initial STM validation project, said STM testbed manager Björn Andreasson.
“Carnival’s advanced fleet operation centre is a good example of how a proprietary ecosystem can be connected to interact with external services via STM,” he said. “Costa’s contributions in bringing STM forward are most valuable to the project and to the maritime industry at large.”
On board ships, the STM information interacts and is displayed on ECDIS. Ships involved in the STM validation project are equipped with STM interfaces as an integrated part of their Wärtsilä Voyage-, Furuno- and Adveto-supplied ECDIS.
The STM validation project goal was to provide STM functionality to 300 ships. With the addition of the entire Carnival fleet, this figure is now almost 400 ships.
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