Inmarsat secured approval from classification society Bureau Veritas for its internet-of-things (IoT) connectivity service
Bureau Veritas granted approval in principle (AiP) for Inmarsat’s Fleet Data service, which provides dedicated bandwidth for sensor data between ship and cloud-based storage ashore.
Inmarsat said this was a major milestone in deploying Fleet Data as it confirms this service can be installed safely on ships, verifying Fleet Data will not affect existing navigation, safety and radio communication systems on vessels.
“Granting this AiP to Fleet Data offers powerful evidence of our strategy to lead the way when it comes to supporting the technologies that will truly transform our industry and to provide the required confidence in users and stakeholders,” said Bureau Veritas marine and offshore technical director Jean-François Segretain.
Fleet Data is a bandwidth-inclusive platform allowing shipowners and managers to take control of sensor data. They can manage its collection on board, pre-processing, extraction and aggregation in cloud-based storage. Data can then be released for analysis by the operator’s own decision-making software or third-party applications.
Fleet Data is available via Fleet Xpress and will be rolled out to Inmarsat FleetBroadband later this year or early in 2020.
“Securing approval demonstrates that the maritime industry’s impartial standard bearers on safety, security and the environment identify Fleet Data as supportive of their objectives,” said Inmarsat Maritime vice president for business development Stefano Poli.
“Fleet Data is the industry’s first sensor agnostic platform to unleash IoT-based vessel performance gains,” he added.
“This approval verifies that Fleet Data can be installed on board any ship without the need for further approval, certification or testing of any existing system and means it is safe to install.”
Fleet Data draws on different sources of data, including onboard sensors, the ship’s voyage data recorder or the integrated automation system.
Data is pre-processed and transferred ashore by satellite connection.
Users access a secure online dashboard that is virtually connected via application program interfaces to the analytics, monitoring and management tools available through IoT.
Any suitable data-logging device that benefits from continuous connectivity can be used for Fleet Data, said Mr Poli.
Bandwidth used by Fleet Data will not added to shipowners’ airtime costs, “whether they use the solution to enhance operational ship efficiency or to benchmark data across an entire fleet” said Mr Poli.
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