Page 26: of Marine News Magazine (June 2013)

GE?s Power Conversion business is bringing enhanced operability to the company?s Dynamic Positioning (DP) system. According to GE, the latest version is more energy ef cient, better integrated and more mariner friendly. De-  ning that concept further, Paul English, marine leader of GE Power Conversion, told MarineNews in May, ?We are giving ship control back to the mariners.? GE leverages more than 40 years of experience in its effort to reduce the burden of the technology on the operator. It?s a new direc- tion in DP. It?s the mariner?s DP. GE?s latest DP offering is mariner-focused, enhancing situational awareness and rebalancing attention from sys- tem management to true seamanship. This mariner-friendly package of controls and displays acknowledges the unique skill sets of the mariners operating the system, allowing them to re-focus on seamanship and ship handling rather than becoming distracted by DP system management. Since introduced some 50 years ago, DP systems have become increasingly complex in their con gurations and in their operation. Over time, the sophistication and com- plexity of DP systems has led to DP operators who are more preoccupied with managing the computer rather than on the primary task of controlling the ship. Alluding to this, English explains GE?s new system by saying, ?We are giving DP back to the operator. We are taking DP con- trol out of the engineering world and putting it back into the marine world. We are turning it back into a nautical instrument.? That?s probably music to the ears of veteran marine professionals everywhere who have, over the course of one generation, seen the bridge of the typical workboat morph from the most basic con guration into one that more re- sembles a space shuttle dashboard. GE pioneers a friendlier operating system for mariners. By Joseph Keefe A New Direction for DP A New Direction for DP Reproduced by kind permission of Seacor Marine, LLC 26 MNJune 2013MN June2013 Layout 18-31.indd 26MN June2013 Layout 18-31.indd 265/30/2013 3:58:33 PM5/30/2013 3:58:33 PM