A North Sea platform supply vessel was remotely controlled off the coast of Scotland for four hours – from 5000 miles away – in a pioneering world first trial of the technology.
The 80 metre Highland Chieftain was put through a series of maneuvers by a crew sitting in an office in San Diego, California.
The Wartsila group used satellites to communicate with the ship’s on board systems and put it through its paces.
The technology firm calls the project Smart Marine technology.
The tests involved driving the vessel through a sequence of manoeuvres using a combination of Dynamic Positioning (DP) and manual joystick control.
It was carried out on August 21 off the north-east coast of Scotland in collaboration with Gulfmark Offshore, the US based operator who provided the vessel for the project.
Wärtsilä’s Dynamic Positioning unit developed remote control capabilities in the early part of 2016, but this was the first test carried out on an offshore vessel.
The successful test was conducted over an almost 4 hour period during which time the vessel was driven through a series of manoeuvres at both high and low speeds. All the test procedures carried out went as planned.
Roger Holm, president of Wärtsilä Marine Solutions, said: “In the age of digitalisation, the future Smart Marine ecosystem will involve connecting ‘smart’ vessels with ‘smart’ ports to enable an even more efficient use of resources. It will also reduce the impact on climate while enhancing safety.”
Andrea Morgante, head of digital, at Wärtsilä added: “One of the first and most critical hurdles to overcome along the path to the enablement of intelligent shipping is to develop efficient and reliable remote control and monitoring capabilities, taking factors such as bandwidth limitations and cyber security into consideration.
“This test provides a clear indication that we are well on the way to achieving this. The fact that the ship was enabled for remote operation in only a few hours is a strong endorsement of Wärtsilä’s position at the forefront of marine technology development.”
It is anticipated that Wärtsilä’s development of successful remote access to ships will also enable virtual service solutions to customers needing tuning or testing of their DP systems.
This solution will be used for other pilot projects, such as automated docking procedures.
