Page 62: of Marine Technology Magazine (September 2023)

MTR

Cool New Tech 100

P P P P P P P P P P P Po o o o o o o o o o o op p p p p p p pe e e e e e e e e e ey y y y y y y y ye e e e e e T T T T T Te e e e e ea a a a am m m m m m front of the vessel to report back to the bridge the direction and the static friction coef? cient at the speci? c geolocation at the tension in the chain. Popeye does this rain or shine, even on a anchorage. This allowed the ability to predict anchor dragging moonless night at 4am, on a frozen deck. And that happens ev- before it happened. Knowing this, the captain can save fuel by ery hour at this moment on every anchored vessel worldwide. avoiding unnecessary re-anchorings as well as protect Popeye.

The safety hazard for the deckhand, let alone the myriad Storing the footage provides also a system of record for insur- risks from re-active anchor dragging, seemed quite profound, ance purposes.

inspiring the search for technology that can help boost safety The team was invited to present at the US Coast Guard’s HQ and productivity, while reducing risk and cost. in Washington DC, after which additional potential uses for

Taking advantage of accrued knowledge plus guidance the technology were proposed: Pirate mode, Overboard mode from professors like Sid Deliwala, Nick McGill, Micheal and Perimeter mode.

Carchidi and Kostas Daniilidis, the ? ve students were able to rede? ne the problem from ? rst principles and come up Prevco developed the use of Heat Sink Pipes to address the with a novel solution. problem of how to get heat out of a subsea enclosure. They

Using state of the art Computer Vision techniques, the team work by using a thermodynamic working ? uid which is inside a developed a chain-recognition model. By pointing a camera sealed hollow thermally conductive tube, lined with a capillary placed at the bow of the ship directly on the anchor chain, structure or wick. This method can transmit thermal energy at it’s possible to extract the tension and direction of the chain. rates of one hundred times faster than through solid conductors.

Using that, they model the shape of the catenary and back-out Heat pipes are essentially a closed evaporator-condenser sys- 62 September/October 2023

MTR #7 (50-65).indd 62 10/2/2023 3:44:10 PM