Navy and Cruise Industry Trial People Tracking Technology

The latest IT solutions in People Tracking have captured the interest of Carnival Corporation and the Italian Navy. A live demo in Milan on June 23 was attended by safety and technical management of Carnival Group, the largest cruise company in the world, and by the Naval Armaments Directorate of the Italian Ministry of Defense.

Martec, a partner of the MONALISA 2.0 project, demonstrated a test installation on the cruise ship Ruby Princess connected in real-time from Alaska. The People Tracking System ensures a quick response to ship emergencies in terms of rapid automatic detection of crew presence in sensitive areas. It will help with evacuating crew before extinguishing fires with CO2 for example.

The Italian Navy is significantly inclined to advanced technologies, especially if they are nationally and internationally recognized for their excellence, said Admiral Pellegrino, talking about installations used on board of their ships to ensure crew safety.

"The need to know with certainty, for safety reasons, the crew presence in hazardous areas is a challenge that the Navy has always dealt with using available technological solutions. In compliance with the new Naval Law, the Defence Administration would like to adopt the consolidated version of the People Tracking System produced by Martec onboard all naval units, taking into account the benefits of functional integration with the platform damage control, the homogeneity of the configuration of the installed systems and, not least, by the uniformity of logistical support."

The Italian Navy, which has had a pilot application on the aircraft carrier Cavour for some years, was pleased to note the resolution of some technological issues, appreciating the results of the testing that has resulted in a concrete example of dual use technology, i.e. marine applications usable in both merchant and military industries.

From his point of view Captain Casarini, Marine & Safety Director Newbuilding of Carnival Corporation, pointed out: "The ships are getting bigger. We went from 1,000 people 30 years ago to over 6,000 today with important repercussions and effects on security management on board.

“The giants of the sea are true floating countries, thus requiring a new approach that can benefit from new technologies. The People Tracking System is a clear and good example. The ability to locate people on board is fundamental in certain situations and that's why Carnival Corporation and Princess Cruises made the Ruby Princess available for a trial that has been successfully underway for three months coordinated by Piero Susino, Technical Operations Director of Princess Cruises.”

The origin of the initiative goes back about three years ago when Martec joined MONALISA 2.0, a European project led by the Swedish Maritime Administration, with many involved partners from ten different countries. The president of Martec, Eng. Fogazzaro, commented: "We are pleased to have contributed to invest in the best funds of the European Community, satisfying the expectations of the Navy and our partners Carnival and the Ministry of Transport; achieving a concrete and satisfactory result".

The Italian Ministry of Transport, represented by Eng. Mario Dogliani of RINA was also satisfied with the goals and competences reached by the team.

MONALISA 2.0 is a European-wide project that includes 39 partners from 10 countries. The partnership has a favorable balance between the private, public and academia sectors. It is co-financed by the European Union.

The total budget is EUR 24 million ($26 million). It was formally approved and signed on November 5, 2013 and will be completed by the end of 2015.