September 20198 IN MY V EWTHE NEXT CHAPTER OF AUTONOMOUS SHIPPING IN MARINE 4.0BY NG TEE GUAN, VP MARINE TECHNOLOGY & SOLUTIONS, MARINE, ST ENGINEERING.More than a decade ago when the concept of autonomous and predictive diagnostics in vessels was just talk on paper, a team of us at ST Engineering had established the Unmanned Maritime Vehicle Centre (UMVC) and started our journey on developing unmanned surface vessel (USV). This was in 2008, and early days before the birth of Industrial 4.0.Even then, those who have been in the game already recognized the promise of enhanced productivity, and higher operational efficiency at lower costs that will drive the age of digitalization and revolutionize industries.Indeed, researchers at the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) have estimated that industries and companies that invest in digitalization could trim their operational costs on average by 3.6% and improve efficiency by 4.1%. The study also indicated that productivity increase of 3% to 5% are possible, while predictive maintenance and virtually guided self-servicing could also reduce maintenance costs by 10 to 40%.When it first started, the UMVC's key capabilities and focus was on the system integration of various platforms with a modular design that can accommodate payloads for different types of operations. Software was developed in-house to define mission-specific behavior that could meet operation and safety requirements. We launched the first USV capable of navigating in busy commercial waters in 2010, which also had the ability to operate fully autonomously with multi-modal collision detection and collision avoidance (CDCA) software, and was capable of performing autonomous maneuvers such as waypoint navigation, screening, and blocking. These efforts established ST Engineering capabilities in Navigation Autonomy.Two years later, the Marine arm of ST Engineering embarked on the in-house design and development of a Ship Management System (SMS) for USVs. Addressing the Hull, Mechanical and Electrical (HM&E) autonomy of USV. The system, also known as NERVA SMS, is highly customizable to suit specific operations and demands of users and is based on an open architecture platform which adopts modular design. This flexible structure also incorporates a centralized control system that provides a clear view of the ship's operations including propulsion, electrical functions, auxiliaries, and damage controls. The smart platform has since been deployed on various projects, including newbuild and retrofit vessels. We have also developed an autonomous navigation system with collision avoidance based on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea 1972 (COLREGs). Constantly challenging ourselves to move in tandem with market needs and technology changes, in 2017, we unveiled the NERVA Ship Management System and Sensemaking System (SMS²) which added big data analytics to monitor equipment as well NG Tee Guan
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