Improve situational awareness to prevent shipping accidents

“Officers on board use ECDIS to look at hydrographic information; they look outside the window for potential hazards, making a mental picture of around the ship; they would be looking at three to four screens to build up a picture in their mind of what is happening around the ship,” Mr Singh explained.

“If we can get all relevant information on one screen this would reduce the workload of the officer and improve situational awareness, as when they switch between screens they may miss important safety information.” The AR involves would help watchkeepers make better navigational decisions, provide the right alerts for voyage completion and help officers in reduced visibility to make better decisions.

Mr Singh thinks smart bridge technology will support navigators, not replace them with computers in semi-autonomous ships. “There is no replacement for human eyes, which are the best equipment when they are being effectively used,” he said. “We need to support the officer with technology to look outside when it is difficult to do so.”

Technology also needs to prevent lapses of concentration and minimise distraction from mobile personal devices. “Seafarers are spending more screen time on mobile phones. It is very difficult to keep them away,” said Mr Singh. “We know the limitations of our humans. We need to support crew not to make mistakes and not allow slips in concentration to happen. The best solution is smart alerts, so crew get the information before mistakes are made.”

Inoperability of e-navigation

There are still multiple issues with the integration of multiple devices and technologies on ship bridges and variations in standards used. “Industry has to work together to get different systems working together and understand how we can use them on board,” continued Mr Singh. “Various associations are working together, providing user cases and guidelines to seafarers.”

He is involved in an Intertanko working group to provide guidelines to seafarers on how to implement ECDIS and use the technologies on board. This is assisting IMO in evolving ECDIS performance standards and improving electronic navigational charts in delivering key information to navigators.

These actions are helping the industry to fill in gaps in knowledge and IMO requirements from e-navigation. “The gap I see is between the technology being developed and the regulatory side; there are different ways of working,” said Mr Singh. “We are working to fill these gaps.”

There are also still gaps in seafarer competencies in navigation and optimal equipment use, which need to be addressed. “We are considering what we can do to improve situational awareness. We need to work with people to improve their navigational skills and at the same time, work with the technology to provide crew with the support when they need it,” Mr Singh commented.

One way to reduce the workload on seafarers is to remove manual administrative processes, such as chart and ECDIS updates and provide voyage information to other ships and authorities. “If we can make data exchange automatic it would reduce the workload of seafarers on board,” he added. “Automatic data exchange and making more maritime safety information available are key areas where we want to see improvements from IMO.”

As more digitalisation and e-navigation technologies are introduced, shipowners will need easier methods of accessing, validating and implementing them.

“New technology is like being in unknown waters,” said Mr Singh. “The best way to go forward is to collaborate, support and share experiences, so we can all work together to improve situational awareness, officer competencies and safety on board.”

New onboard digitalisation technologies

Technologies being developed or already being implemented on board ships include:

Augmented realities

Artificial intelligence

Machine learning

Electronic logbooks

Internet-of-things

3D printing

Cloud-based simulation

Virtual reality

Drones

Digital twins

(Source: Stolt Tankers)