Page 47: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2021)

TECH FILES DIGITALIZATION

MV American Courage is the largest ship to date to operate the Wärtsilä SmartMove Suite.

© ASC-Rand Holdings LLC

What’s the ? rst step on a project like this?

Pedersen: There are a lot of things going on before there’s even a contract. There has to be a lot of understanding of the ship’s operational pro? le. Does it lend itself to use the capa- bilities we have? And if we assume that these things fall into place, then the ? rst thing that will have to happen is the physi- cal installation of the system on board. One the key efforts is to ? rst make sure that there is a proper integration between our system and the propulsion system on the vessel. When that is done, we start tuning the system and doing some dry runs via simulation (simulation on the speci? c routes the ves- sel normally sails).

Looking ‘bigger picture,’ is the integration of this type started as an open discussion with ASC, understanding their of tech solution all or nothing, or is it a step process for operations and then ? nding common ground (with our offer- those owners not ready to go all in?

ings). So we are delivering a system that is able to automati- cally control the physical movement on the ship when going Fernback: It is de? nitely a step process, (which is why) from A to B. This is not meant to replace the crew, it’s meant we see autonomy as a journey. I think the other thing that one as something to enable the crew to focus on all of the other has to take into consideration is the affordability. Wärtsilä is tasks that are related to navigating. really trying to pull its central gravity more towards the de-

What we deliver is a system with the technology built on carbonization agenda, so we want to underpin that with ac- top of a dynamic positioning system with some changes to the tivities and solutions that can help the various vessels move software, because this is a completely different task than that towards emission reduction. I think autonomy is just one of of a normal DP system. those things. Less so perhaps on emissions, but much more on www.marinelink.com 47

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