Systems Readied for Sea Traffic Management Trial
Electronics and ECDIS supplier Furuno has announced it will provide 43 ships with systems for the E.U. Sea Traffic Management (STM) project trial.
The STM project is a follow on from the E.U.-funded MONALISA 2.0 project. MONALISA 2.0 developed a system that will enable vessel route information to be shared between ships and centers on shore.
Using this data, other service providers will be able to offer advice to vessels, such as recommendations to avoid congestion in areas with high traffic, avoidance of environmentally sensitive areas, and maritime safety information. The information exchange between vessel and ports is anticipated to improve planning and performance regarding arrivals, departures and turnaround times.
STM is developing the information technology platforms needed for this boost to voyage planning and traffic flow. Test beds in Northern Europe and Mediterranean Sea will engage 300 vessels, 10 ports of different sizes and three shore centers. These will validate the STM concept and pave the way for smooth deployment of new collaborative services.
The first MONALISA project, implemented in 2010-2013, showed that providing vessels with the ability to see each other’s planned routes gives navigators a more complete picture of how surrounding vessels will influence their onward voyage.
From this picture, shore services are able to retrieve valuable information and offer advice to vessels on their routes, such as recommendations to avoid congestion in areas with high traffic, avoidance of environmentally sensitive areas and maritime safety information.
The STM Validation Project encompasses 39 partners (private, public and academic) from 13 countries and with a total budget of 43 million Euros ($45 million). The project will run from 2015 to 2018.
Tero Airissalo, Sales and Marketing Manager at Furuno says: “Furuno is striving to be among the first with new technology and solutions. We recognize the long-term benefits of STM in the form of higher security and safety, increased efficiency and a good impact on the environment But STM is also beneficial in the near future. In the current test, customers using our system will save a lot of fuel through better optimized routes and better timing of the port call arrival.”
PortCDM Readied
The ports involved in STM have also made progress in defining information to exchange and share, developing connectors to allow automatic information exchange and setting up technical infrastructure. The project will involve testing a new technology PortCDM to enhance coordination and facilitate just-in-time arrivals, increase predictability, berth productivity, punctuality, reduce waiting and anchoring times and boost resource utilization.
The major added value with PortCDM is the exchange of time stamp information between the ports and the ships. This will facilitate just-in-time arrivals and contribute to eliminating idle times for resources connected to port call operations. An example is when a pilot has to wait onboard a ship for the terminal to complete cargo operations because of a lack of accurate information. By having accurate data on the departure, the pilot can arrive just-in-time for the assignment and thereby achieve enhanced resource utilization.
More information about STM is available here.