The Impact of Digital Twins Technology in Maritime Fleet and Safety Management

Abstract

The integration of advanced technologies in areas such as safety, navigation, maintenance, security, supply chain management, and environmental impact can enable shipping maritime companies to enhance operational efficiency, reduce costs, mitigate risks, and drive innovation in a highly competitive industry. This paper introduces the application of Digital Twins in the shipping and maritime sector, highlights its contributions to safety and fleet management with live ship monitoring on all operations and crew, and extends such applications with the integration of Virtual Reality and Artificial intelligence for immediate decision making, risk avoidance and corrective actions. Its concept is based on and follows the developments and improvements of SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea), the ISM (International Safety Management) and ISPS Codes (International Ship and Port Facility Security), and STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping). Furthermore, this work analyzes user requirements from different actors in the shipping and maritime industry (officers, ship-agents, ship owners and ship managers, insurance companies, charterers, etc.) and creates a high-level operations framework to guide the design and implementation of successful maritime digital twin projects. Lastly, it highlights the relationship between the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the digital twin adaptation strategy in the maritime and shipping sector. The paper concludes with the impact and contributions of such intelligent and interactive Digital Twins technologies in the maritime and shipping sectors from operational and environmental sustainability perspectives.