HMC – co-financed by the European Union and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) – is developing a system to improve the safety of maritime navigation.
Strain Analysis Fatigue Engineering and Planning (SAFEPLAN) is a system for the assessment of the safety of navigation. It determines the most important parameters of the ship’s behaviour and relates them to local meteorological data in a forecast model. In this way, it is possible to fine-tune the route during the voyage with real-time measurements of the vessel’s movement, said HMC.
It added that an automated system that also considers the vessel’s loading conditions provides information for voyage safety, accident prevention, environmental focus and time and cost savings. Extreme ship movements lead to cargo loss, material damage and, in the worst case, capsize. Predicting and responding to extreme ship movements can solve this global problem.
Ton Bos, director of HMC, added: ”One of our main corporate objectives is to reduce the environmental impact of maritime operations, so this model also offers opportunities for energy efficiency in shipping and thus for the reduction of CO2.”
The project also develops the necessary hardware, which includes a new type of motion box that measures the ship’s movements in real time and sends them to shore.
“We are focusing our work on making the system available as soon as possible, as climate change increases the likelihood of extreme weather events and extreme vessel behaviour,” said Bos. “This is a current challenge that the entire maritime industry has to face together, so we are working in parallel with shipyards, shipping companies, and marine and systems engineering professionals.”
