Operation Of Vessels Research Articles

Experimental Research and Numerical Analysis of Marine Oil Leakage and Accidental Ignition in Fishing Vessels

The hazard of highly combustible marine oil leakage greatly increases fishing vessel operation risks. This research integrates an experiment to explore the coupling mechanism of a typical heated surface of an engine room as a source to ignite marine oil. A numerical model is established that depicts the dynamic process of and variations in the combined effects regarding multiple factors of oil ignition under actual experiment. The leaked marine oil is ignited with a heated surface, relevant models are applied to reproduce the results, and the influences of specific parameters of a fishing vessel’s engine room are analyzed. The results indicate that the leaked oil boils violently on the heated surface, and a vapor film forms on the oil surface. Increased heated-surface temperatures lead to a significant difference in the initial ignition occurrences of marine oil, and the distance between the ignition height and oil is closely related to the engine room environment. The ignition probability of marine oil shows a gradually increasing trend with elevated heated-surface temperatures. The ignition height presents a downward trend with the increase in the heated-surface temperature, while the engine room’s humidity in air inhibits the upward transfer of heat; however, the degree of inhibition is limited accordingly. The results evidence that this comparative work can be an effective approach to reveal the impacts of marine oil, heat source, ventilation velocity, and humidity on initial ignition characteristics. Additionally, this work provides a basis for setting up emergency planning with appropriate monitoring equipment and further preventing vessel fires due to oil–thermal ignition.

Exploring the behavior feature of complex trajectories of ships with Fourier transform processing: a case from fishing vessels

The significant uncertainty and complexity of vessels at sea poses challenges for regulatory bodies in the fishing industry. This paper presents a method for identifying fishing vessel trajectory characteristics involving the Fourier series transform. The model utilizes the Fourier series and Gaussian mixture clustering to address the complexity and uncertainty issues in fishing vessel trajectories. First, the vessel trajectories undergo a process of dimensionality expansion and projection along the temporal axis. The relationship between trajectories and complex plane projection was elucidated in this process. Second, a vessel trajectory identification model involving Fourier transformation was constructed. Subsequently, the phase spectrum was assigned binary values using differentiation, and the phase spectrum characteristics of the transformed trajectories through Fourier transformation were analyzed. Finally, six encoding formats for fishing vessel motion trajectories in phase spectrum encoding are introduced, along with the determination of uncertain vessel motion range through mixed Gaussian clustering. This method has been validated using a dataset comprising 7,000 fishing vessel trajectories collected from the Beidou satellite positioning system. The results demonstrate that the range of uncertain vessel motion was able to be obtained with the assistance of Gaussian mixture clustering, with an 80% probability position of approximately 1,000 m and a 50% probability position of around 2,000 m. Effective identification of fishing vessel operating and navigational states was achieved, leading to the determination of a safety distance for fishing vessels in the range of 1,000m–2,000 m. This research holds important reference value for fishery regulatory agencies in terms of supervising fishing vessels and maintaining a safe navigational distance.

TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS FOR FIBERGLASS HULLS IN OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS OPERATIONS

This article notes the operation of auxiliary vessels in harsh, aggressive offshore oil and gas field conditions. These vessels transport the necessary equipment and tools, etc. to the oil and gas field trestles. That is, there is wear and tear and ageing of hull structures after a long period of time. As a rule, ship hull structures are made of steel and metals of a certain grade. The aggressive sea water causes corrosion which leads to hull deterioration and gradual destruction. To prevent corrosion, fiberglass material or fiberglass plastics are used. This material is known to be the basic construction material created by scientists and technologists. Fiberglass material, as described in the article, must meet the technical requirements for the operation of auxiliary vessels with hulls made of this material. It is noted that fiberglass material is used in order to save metal and steel. Which is of scientific and practical importance. This material is also used in other areas of engineering and technology. The weight of the material is relatively small compared to metal and steel. According to the technical requirements for the operation of auxiliary vessels, an example is given for increasing the strength of fiberglass material by treatment with a reinforcing agent. The hulls of vessels when transporting the necessary equipment and tools to the trestles of offshore oil and gas fields, are subjected to shock loads of sea waves, as well as the load from the weight of the transported cargo. Consequently, the article notes that hull structures made of fiberglass material, can be one or two or three layers. This gives the ship's hull shock resistance. In this case, the requirement for durability during operation of auxiliary vessels is observed. The scheme of these hulls in cross-sectional view is given. It is noted that repair of hulls made of fiberglass material is easier in comparison with other materials. Deck coating is described, which increases the strength of the running surface of the deck and ensures its durability and carrying capacity. In general, the article describes all the technical requirements for fiberglass hulls and their advantages over materials like metals and steel. It is said that the operation of auxiliary vessels with fiberglass hulls in adverse oil and gas field conditions with the technical requirements for these hulls described in the article, will be of high quality and economical. Keywords: technical requirements, vessel hulls, offshore oil and gas field conditions, fiberglass material.

Fostering seafarers’ development to achieve the Malaysian Shipping Master Plan goal

ABSTRACT In the pursuit of enhancing the stewardship and sustainability of the maritime industry, seafarers play an increasingly pivotal role. Malaysian seafarers make a substantial contribution to the economic development through their involvement in maritime transportation and their ability to ensure the timely operation of vessels. The assessment of the extent to which the Malaysian Shipping Master Plan (MSMP) has been implemented and its effectiveness in promoting the growth of domestic seafarers reveals a scarcity of appropriate progress. The primary objective of the study is to analyse the impediments to career progression faced by Malaysian seafarers and to provide viable alternatives which coincide with the MSMP’s objectives of fostering career opportunities and professional growth for Malaysian seafarers. A qualitative research approach was employed to achieve the study’s objectives, drawing on expert opinions and secondary data sources. According to the research findings, the government’s implementation of the MSMP was inadequate. Seafarers face significant challenges in advancing their professions, owing primarily to a lack of training opportunities and inadequate government support. This study provides recommendations aimed at enhancing and supporting the development of seafaring careers in order to meet the needs of the maritime industry, which is reliant on seafarers’ competence and proficiency.

An efficient optimal hybrid SVELM based monitoring and forecasting the engine operations for safety standards

During the past years, the environmental and safety-based regulations have turned out to be more stringent, requiring more regulations on the ship's operation and condition for achieving most safety standards. Thus, timely, efficient, and accurate maintenance becomes more significant. The appropriate utilization of data can assist the shipping industry in obtaining improved efficiency and operational cost savings, greater safety, better crew rates, improved asset protection, and environmental protection. The most important objective of this study is to build up a novel technique that can synchronize collected data from different sensors on the ship and implement a scalable framework for identifying the early sign patterns of defective behavior in vessel operating conditions. Particularly, the novel technique investigated in the current study is based on a Hybrid SVELM-GOLF to evaluate time series directly from the dataset. The data smoothening, filtering, elimination of outliners and segmentation process are carried out in the preprocessing stage. Followed by preprocessing, the features are extracted for classification purposes. Here, a novel Hybrid Support Vector Extreme Learning Model based Grasshopper Optimization with Levy Flight (Hybrid SVELM-GOLF) technique is proposed to estimate the probability of cylinder condition (i.e. defective or healthy) in the ship. The simulation results display that the proposed hybrid SVELM-GOLF approach achieves a higher rate of prediction accuracy of about 96.2% as well as precision, recall, specificity and F1-score by 95.2%, 95%, 95.8% and 94.9% than other compared approaches. Thus, the hybrid SVELM-GOLF approach gains the higher capability to recognize suspicious patterns and localize defective regions.

Large-scale seabird community structure along oceanographic gradients in the Scotia Sea and northern Antarctic Peninsula

IntroductionThe Scotia Sea and Antarctic Peninsula are warming rapidly and changes in species distribution are expected. In predicting habitat shifts and considering appropriate management strategies for marine predators, a community-level understanding of how these predators are distributed is desirable. Acquiring such data, particularly in remote areas, is often problematic given the cost associated with the operation of research vessels. Here we use cruise vessels as sampling platforms to explore seabird distribution relative to habitat characteristics.MethodsData on seabird at-sea distribution were collected using strip-transect counts throughout the Antarctic Peninsula and Scotia Sea in the austral summer of 2019-2020. Constrained correspondence analysis (CCA) and generalized additive models (GAM) were used to relate seabird community composition, density, and species richness to environmental covariates.ResultsSpecies assemblages differed between oceanographic areas, with sea surface temperature and distance to coast being the most important predictors of seabird distribution. Our results further revealed a geographic separation of distinct communities rather than hotspot regions in the study area in summer.DiscussionThese findings highlight the importance of large-scale environmental characteristics in shaping seabird community structure, presumably through underlying prey distribution and interspecific interactions. The present study contributes to the knowledge of seabird distribution and habitat use as well as the baseline for assessing the response of Antarctic seabird communities to climate warming. We argue that cruise vessels, when combined with structured research surveys, can provide a cost-effective additional tool for the monitoring of community and ecosystem level changes.

Measurements of tidal flow variability in Ramsey Sound, Pembrokeshire

The nature of the flow at in-stream tidal energy sites is particularly important for predicting array and device performance, and also for operations and maintenance planning. Previous developers have reported issues such as the choice of vessel, cost of operations, and the limits of operation of deployment vessels. The dynamics of the flow around slack water has been of particular interest at Ramsey Sound in Pembrokeshire (UK) for planning the recovery of an existing turbine, the Tidal Energy Limited ‘Deltastream’.
 This research presents flow characteristics of Ramsey Sound, based on analysis of Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) measurements and tide gauge data from the nearby Standard Port of Milford Haven. The ADCP was located approximately 300 m across the channel, at the northern end of the channel, where the channel width was 1200 m and the mean depth was approximately 33 m. The flow dynamics were examined specifically to look at times potentially suitable for offshore operations Two weeks of data were used in the analysis, spanning a complete spring-neap cycle.
 Results demonstrate that flow velocities exhibited clear asymmetry, with stronger flows on the northerly directed flood tide than on the ebb. There was considerable variation in the measured current speed around the time of the maximum, suggesting large scale bed feature generated turbulence. The flood (northerly) current maximum was approximately in phase with high water at Milford Haven. Cross correlation indicated that the flow generally led the elevation by 20 minutes. In contrast to the expected theory, the current strength at mid-depth was stronger than at the surface on the maximum flood tide. The maximum flow speed in the tide was reasonably predictable from the tide range at Milford. A threshold-based analysis of the ADCP measurements allowed the duration of slow-moving water to be identified for operation planning.
 Operations and planning in light of sound understanding of hydrodynamics at tidal energy sites is critical for future economic success of the tidal energy sector. The results shown here from an ADCP deployment in Ramsey Sound have shown the capability to give useful tools for planning recovery operations.

Real-Time Energy Management for Marine Applications Using Markov Approximation

All-electric and hybrid-electric ships have become the centerpiece for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving fuel efficiency in the maritime industry. Real-time power management of multiple power sources in both design and operation becomes critical due to the uncertainty and randomness of the vessel's power demand. Furthermore, the vessel operators may have additional requirements for operational flexibility, such as fully recharging the battery before the next trip and limiting engine switch on/off to reduce wear-and-tear, which lead to complex power management systems requiring domain-expert knowledge. In this paper, a hybrid solution for real-time power management is proposed. The model-based approach encapsulates the power system, and the data-driven approach (a machine learning technique called Markov approximation) handles the uncertainty. First, an offline deterministic optimization problem for power management is formulated. Second, the deterministic problem is transformed into a maximum weighted independent set (MWIS) problem. Next, the Markov approximation framework is applied to the transformed problem to utilize the machine learning techniques widely used in wireless communications and computing industries. Finally, a reinforcement learning-based real-time solution is proposed. Extensive simulations are performed on a ferry case study, and the results are within the proven theoretical bounds of machine learning techniques.

Влияние дефектов распылителя форсунки на расход топлива и контроль топливной аппаратуры на современном уровне

The basis of improving the vessel energy efficiency is economical operation of its power units - the main and auxiliary diesel engines, steam boilers. There has been described the smart control system for ship operation. The main parameters listed below are under constant control: fuel consumption of the main and auxiliary steam diesel engines, auxiliary steam boiler, operating time of the main and auxiliary diesel engines, auxiliary steam boiler; fuel level in consumable, settling and bunker fuel tanks; vessel speed, vessel position, weather conditions. The system includes flow meters, temperature, speed, power, and pressure sensors, GPS-station, digital converters, controllers, marine computer industrial design, monitors for parameters in the engine control room and on the bridge, special software for ships and offices. There has been determined the main goal of developing and assembling the system: to develop a reliable working tool for the crew and the main ashore office, to evaluate and control the quality of the vessel operation, to supplement the existing control methods with an improved and more understandable scheme of monitoring various parameters of the ship's operation, including fuel consumption. The results of developing and introducing the system help increase the actual energy efficiency of the vessel operation. An example of real-time fuel consumption control using the smart control system - ShipSmartView - is presented. The functionality of the system is quite wide. Graphs of the current fuel consumption which indicated the defect in the fuel equipment are given. Based on the data, overhaul of the fuel equipment was carried out and a malfunction of the nozzle - a crack - was defined. It has been proved that due to untimely detection of a malfunction, a loss of fuel was allowed.

Diagnosing Cracks in the Injector Nozzles of Marine Internal Combustion Engines during Operation Using Vibration Symptoms

In the operation of internal combustion engines, despite technical state monitoring, some cracks that develop in metal components go undetected, leading to secondary, critical, or degradation damage. The diagnostic systems used in floating objects mainly use quasi-static thermodynamic signals, which alert operators too late about emerging damage. Although various methods have been developed to detect cracks in internal combustion engine components, the effectiveness and implementation of the proposed methods are not satisfactory. Therefore, this article presents the use of selected vibration and in-cylinder pressure signals to diagnose the development of damage in some components of marine diesel engines. The investigations were conducted under the natural conditions of the operation of sea-going vessels during port-handling operations. During these investigations, it was possible to observe clear changes in the values of diagnostic symptoms, which corresponded to the development of damage. The developing damage detected in the study involved cracks in injector nozzles manufactured from alloy steel. Despite advances in design, materials, and manufacturing technology, injector nozzle cracks still occur. The diagnostic symptoms used to detect damage development were the amplitude and spectral and wavelet measurements of vibration acceleration signals. This work aimed to search for crack-oriented methods of signal analysis, for example, computer visualization and the recording of diagnostic parameters in various domains. Decimation, windowed, time, amplitude, and time-frequency domain analyses; wavelet statistics; color analysis; and machine learning were used for classification using artificial neural networks. Experimental investigations showed the possibility of diagnosing the development processes of damage to marine diesel engines. The advanced signal processing methods used made it possible to obtain many signal measurements, from which the most useful diagnostic symptoms were selected. The new symptoms found with decimation, time-domain windowed analysis, and Haar wavelet statistics were more useful than the existing ones.

Development and analysis of the loading characteristic of accumulate fuel injection system Common Rail of the engine 50 RT-flex

The object of research are hydrodynamical processes in fuel delivery system of marine diesel engine of type RT-flex with accumulate fuel injection system of type Common Rail. The problem, being solved, is maintenance of an effective operation of the specified diesel engines due to perfection work of their fuel equipment. The results of simulation modeling of the injection process by accumulator fuel delivery system Common Rail of the 50RT-flex engine are presented. On the basis of the functional diagram of system, a calculation model has been compiled that provides a description of the operation of the systems main blocks. The load characteristic of the fuel equipment is built in the traditional version – the dependence of the fuel delivery parameters from the engine load at a constant speed. For the system under consideration, the control element is the valve assembly connecting the injection control unit (ICU) with injectors. The parameters of the load characteristic in this study are modes with a constant engine speed n=124 rpm and a change in the opening angle of the control valve in the range – jv=6.6–14.4 °CA. The parameters of the devices that largely determine the characteristics of the fuel delivery and the quality of the working processes of a diesel engine are considered in more details. Such an element of the system is ICU, the working body of which is the dosing piston. The main parameters of its operation when delivering fuel are the magnitude and speed of the stroke. For the load characteristics in the accepted range of the valve control valve opening angle jv from 6.6 to 14.4 °CA (2.18 times), the piston stroke was hp=4.29–8.61 mm (2.0 more). In this case, the dependence of hp on jv is linear. Area of use of the data received during research, ship crews and the shore services providing operation of vessels are. A material is applied in process of high school and is already used in various educational forms. The given researches are useful to developers and builders of marine diesel engines of a considered class.

Decarbonization of Short Sea Shipping in European Union: Impact of market and goal based measures

In July 2021, the European Union (EU) published a package of measures for the decarbonization of maritime transport: Market Based Measures (MBM) and Goal Based Measures (GBM) that will gradually be phased in over 2023. The measures derive from an EU decision taken independently of the International Maritime Organization. This fragmentation of maritime transport governance leads to new working scenarios in the EU that have given rise to concern in the shipping industry. This paper analyzes the monetary consequences of EU decarbonization regulation on Short Sea Shipping (SSS) by introducing a mathematical model to meet this aim. From the application of this model to SSS container vessel operating between the Canary Islands and the Iberian Peninsula, it is found that, although MBM accurately reflect the pollutant impact of SSS vessels in the aftermath of the 2020 Global Sulphur Cap, only GBM along with non-compliance deterrents can redirect the vessels’ investments towards more sustainable solutions in the medium-term.

Shining a light on AIS Blackouts with maritime OSINT

Maritime open source intelligence (maritime OSINT) can be used to capture information, critical to business operations, including when electronic systems like Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) fail. AIS is used to identify vessels in maritime navigation, to plan shipping operations, and ensure safety. This data is collected and sold by global aggregators to maritime operators and industry stakeholders. However, AIS communications are vulnerable to malicious cyber activity, changing legal landscapes, adverse physical conditions, or intentional intervention. It is the latter we will focus on in this report. Often, we won't understand the motivation behind a decision to either switch off or manipulate AIS data. However, this decision can have real world impacts, including on relationships between nation states, and the physical safety of maritime personnel. We believe maritime OSINT may represent an effective method to assist in the management of AIS failures. Maritime OSINT not only captures important maritime information when AIS fails, but it provides valuable context, giving us the who, what, and why for vessel operations. In our cast study, we will use maritime OSINT to track sanctioned Russian oil exports, demonstrating how OSINT can be used in this example to inform sanctions compliance programs.

New technology for ship bilge and oily water separation

AbstractBilge and oily water (BOW) during vessel's operation are the most large‐tonnage type of waste and for their treatment all ships, in accordance with international regulatory requirements, have to be equipped with special equipment—oily water separators. At sea vessel's operating conditions three main directions of BOW cleaning are now used: physical, chemical and biological. The analysis of BOW separation methods based on these three directions has shown that it is very difficult to obtain secondary petrochemical products. In the article authors offer a new method for BOW separation which is based on the use of a hydrodynamic process of supercavitation with artificial ventilation of the cavitational cavern. With local origin in the flow of a supercavitating cavern, there will always be saturated water vapor inside of it. The process of permanent water vapor selection from the cavern will ultimately contribute to the production of highly concentrated mixture of secondary petroleum products from initial mixture of BOW. During the study of BOW separation process it was found that decreasing of the working pressure inside the working chamber of the cavitation separator have to be always compensated by an increase in the temperature of the processed multiphase flow.

JUSTIFICATION OF APPROACHES BEFORE PLACEMENT OF PASSENGER VESSELS IN THE DIRECTIONS OF THEIR WORK AND IMPROVING THE WORK PLANNING OF THE SHIPPING COMPANY’S FLEET

Abstract. The purpose of the article is to solve the task of arranging the passenger fleet and improving the planning of the fleet of the shipping company. To achieve the goal, the possible operating conditions of the passenger fleet were studied; developed approaches that will allow, taking into account different types of sailing, different directions of work, sizes of ships, as well as the possibility of replenishment of the fleet, to obtain the maximum value of the financial result when deploying the passenger fleet of the shipping company, which made it possible to improve the planning of the passenger fleet of the shipping company. The process of managing a shipping enterprise is a continuous development of management decisions, which largely depends on the final result of the work of any company. This is especially important for shipping, which functions in conditions of significant dynamics of both the external environment and the direct production of transport processes. The proposed solution will allow the shipping company to effectively locate its fleet, obtain the maximum financial result, taking into account the conditions of transportation and operation of vessels of various types of navigation, forms of organization of transportation, various types of vessels, routes, and also takes into account the possibility of replenishing the fleet of the shipping company in the event that its potential freight capacity does not exceed the amount of transport work. One of the most important areas of the shipping company’s work is planning and optimizing the use of the company’s resources. The shipping company strives for the maximum financial result from the work performed. If we consider the "external environment" as a management subject that also makes decisions corresponding to the options of the possible structure of passenger flows, then this kind of task can be formalized and presented in the form of a matrix game. A characteristic condition is that each party has no information about the decision of the other. Thus, the maximin (minimax) principle is implemented in a conflict situation. The value of the game determines the mathematical expectation of winning the first player, that is, the value of the financial result, which should be taken as planned. As a result, the forecast of the results of the shipping company will reflect the production capabilities of the "external environment" (the second player) and the conditions in which it will have to work. The proposed approach can also be used to determine the values of the planned indicators of other maritime transport enterprises - ports, ship repair plants, as well as standards of transport work; development of the replenishment (write-off) program of the shipping company’s fleet; determining the tariff policy related to the transportation of passengers in the shipping company’s region.

Predicting ship fuel consumption using a combination of metocean and on-board data

Fuel Oil Consumption (FOC) accounts for a significant proportion of a vessel's operating costs. The cost of fuel for a fishing vessel operation may often go up to 50% or more. Accurate forecasting FOC in voyage planning stage is essential for route optimization decision support system with the objective of fuel-saving, which is difficult because the future state of the vessel and its power and machinery systems for fuel modelling are not available during route planning stage. Moreover, the state of the environment conditions and its impact on vessel performance should be considered. In this paper, machine learning approaches were applied to predict FOC from plannable in-situ variables and modelled speed through water. The latter is estimated from speed over ground and environmental variables in this work, whose prediction is also critical for decision support systems to avoid collisions. By applying the proposed methodology, the final selected Random Forest models can achieve high mean accuracies (over 92%) in predicting fuel consumption on unseen future data.

“Designation of operational restrictions for harbour ships on inland waterways

The existing approaches to assignment of operational restrictions for inland vessels with regard to maritime areas, as well as for inland waterways, are analyzed in the paper. The methodology for assessing the feasibility of organizing the operation of inland and mixed river-sea-going ships in wave-sheltered waters in maritime areas is studied. The additional limitations regulated by the Guidance R.015-2006 of the Russian Classification Society for such vessels while exploiting in regimes of port navigation in sea regions are con-sidered. Research of peculiarities of wave formation on inland waterways has showed that in coastal areas the local winds and topography have significant influence. For limited water areas there are no up-to-date refer-ence data on long-term wave and wind characteristics. Executed analysis has shown that for the decision of a problem on definition of permissible conditions of ships operation on the protected water areas on internal waterways in a port navigation mode, the approach earlier used for the Guidance requires essential changes. A list of parameters to be taken into account when justifying the conditions of inland navigation vessels opera-tion in sheltered waters has been defined. Calculated dependence of an estimation of modes of the established wave in the limited water areas on which realization of a mode of port floating on inland waterways is possi-ble is offered. Ranges of calculation limits for ships of the classes under review are determined. The required level of safe operation of inland waterway vessels in the basins, the rank of which doesn't correspond to the class of the vessel, is substantiated. The study results are recommended for inclusion in the regulatory frame-work of the Russian Classification Society.

Analysis of the existing regulations on certification and training of autonomous vessels operators

The development of autonomous navigation has reached a stage where the issue of creating a system for training specialists in the field of autonomous ship management and developing a regulatory framework that defines the requirements for methodological, personnel and logistical support for such training arises. A brief analysis of the available bibliographic sources on the topic of training operators of autonomous vessels is presented. The requirements of the procedures for the training and certification of autonomous ships operators contained in three regulatory documents published to date such as Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships. Principles and Code of Practice of the British Marine Industry Association, Regulations for the Classification of Offshore Autonomous and Remotely Operated Surface Vessels of the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping and Norwegian Register Standard are considered. A list of basic competencies necessary for the management of autonomous vessels has been formed. A significant part of the knowledge, skills and abilities that make up these competencies are acquired at the stage of training under programs for obtaining a professional seafarer diploma at the management level. The competencies of the autonomous vessel operator are formed on the basis of maritime competencies by adding additional knowledge, skills and abilities that reflect the specifics of the serviced autonomous vessels, equipment and apparatus used in a particular remote control center and navigation conditions in the serviced area. Additional competencies of the operator are largely related to other specialties (IT specialists, electromechanics, radio specialists). In the future, within the framework of the international regulation carried out by the IMO, in the training of autonomous ships operators, the approach underlying the training of ship traffic control systems operators can be used.

Design Considerations for Unmanned Surface Vessels in Naval Service

Abstract Within the evolving maritime industry, we are faced with this fundamental question: “What modifications of design practices are required to support the development of Unmanned Surface Vessels?” The trivial answer is to remove the people, but mariners and personnel afloat have been a stalwart for the operations of prior maritime vessels. So, we now begin to assess the impact of their removal/reassignment as an industry. Not only a technical challenge exists, the regulatory and statutory challenge is also worthy of noting. It is the goal of this paper to look at the potential implications and modifications required to effectively design unmanned surface vessels. Four major subelements will be required to field a successful system. These subelements are Design, Classification, Testing, and Certification. Classification, Testing, and Certification will be the focus of a future discourse. The Design subelement will be assessed across a set of categories that aligns with the U.S. Navy Ship Work Breakdown Structure. The required assessments need to be given a time horizon for contextual purposes. In support of this assertion, the targeted objective is a vessel certified for unmanned, unescorted, over the horizon, blue water operations by 2025. Introduction Humans have been designing and deploying ocean-going vessels for thousands of years, potentially since the dawn of human history based on findings on Flores Island, Indonesia; San Miguel Island, CA; and the Pesse Canoe (Rose 1998; Pringle 2008; Drents Museum 2016). During this time, the maritime industry has weathered multiple paradigm shifts in major subsystems, such as the transition from sails to steam to internal combustion engines to electric drives, none of these are as potentially disruptive as the current shift underway to unmanned vessel operations. This transition is across the maritime domain, it applies to commercial and naval applications. “The Navy wants to acquire these large unmanned vehicles (UVs) as part of an effort to shift the Navy to a more distributed fleet architecture . . .” (O’Rourke 2022). These new assets will augment and not replace traditional vessels. “We will add to our current fleet a host of manned, unmanned and optionally manned platforms operating under, on, and above the seas” (Gilday 2022).

Fuel consumption prediction for a passenger ferry using machine learning and in-service data: A comparative study

As the importance of eco-friendly transportation increases, providing an efficient approach for marine vessel operation is essential. Methods for status monitoring with consideration to the weather condition and forecasting with the use of in-service data from ships requires accurate and complete models for predicting the energy efficiency of a ship. The models need to effectively process all the operational data in real-time. This paper presents models that can predict fuel consumption using in-service data collected from a passenger ship. Statistical and domain-knowledge methods were used to select the proper input variables for the models. These methods prevent over-fitting, missing data, and multicollinearity while providing practical applicability. Prediction models that were investigated include multiple linear regression (MLR), decision tree approach (DT), an artificial neural network (ANN), and ensemble methods. The best predictive performance was from a model developed using the XGboost technique which is a boosting ensemble approach. Our code is available on GitHub at https://github.com/pagand/model_optimze_vessel/tree/OE for future research.