Marine Electronics – April 2019
ABB to Power Iceland’s
First Electric Ferry
ABB will supply integrated power and electric storage solutions to the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration’s new ferry that will take 3,600 annual trips in the rough waters between Landeyjahöfn on the mainland and Westman Island, covering 13 km in about 45 min.
The ferry is due for delivery in 2019. The vessel will feature a large battery pack (3,000 kWh) and is designed to operate primarily in a fully electric mode, with onshore charging.
New Initiatives to Support
IoT, big Data Start-Ups
Inmarsat has joined forces with Rainmaking’s Trade and Transport Impact (T&TI) and Bluetech Accelerator to create initiatives that directly support start-ups focused on IoT and big data innovation in the maritime, ports and logistics supply chain. The programs will fund, support and mentor start-ups developing applications that aim to harness the power of IoT and big data to enhance safety, efficiency and sustainability. Inmarsat will collaborate with those start-ups to find a route to market via its global, high-speed satellite communications infrastructure that connects more than 160,000 ships and yachts, as well as ports, road and rail networks across the world.
T&TI will help connect established players, such as Inmarsat, Cargotec and Wärtsilä, with innovative start-ups to work collaboratively to address the biggest commercial and operational challenges facing the global supply chain.
The Bluetech Accelerator, sponsored by the Portuguese government, will take on six business partners, including Inmarsat, to help select and finance the first batch of winning start-ups.
Emerging digital technologies will be increasingly important to shipping and logistics and vital to improving throughput at the world’s largest ports.
Autonomous Profiling Winch
Developed by OSIL
Ocean Scientific International Ltd. (OSIL) has produced an innovative and compact autonomous profiling winch that will operate unmanned for 30 days at 10 profiles per day with a 15-kg payload.
The winch has 200-m drum capacity using 3-mm-diameter Dyneema and is equipped with a level wind to prevent entanglements and ensure the cable spools evenly onto the drum. The winch drum is also fitted with an encoder for pay-out readings and an internal brake that operates automatically.
LUMA Enables 0.5-Sec.
Data Update Underwater
Hydromea’s LUMA, a wireless high-speed underwater communication system, was successfully deployed by a subsea operator in a subsea manifold installation project in the North Sea in November 2018. LUMA was integrated with Ashtead Technology’s AMS+ (autonomous monitoring system) to deliver fast, reliable remote communication of heading, pitch, roll and other essential data in real time via a work-class ROV to the construction vessel.
Typically, wide-band acoustics can provide 5-sec. data update. With the LUMA optical modem, the client obtained reliable data updates every 0.5 sec. without delay in what was deemed poor visibility by the ROV operators. Reliable data throughput was achieved with the WROV monitoring from a distance of 3.5 m from the AMS+ sensor.
Companies Merge to Form
Hatteland Technology
Hatteland Display is merging with Elektronix. The two subsidiaries of the EMBRON group will become a single entity: Hatteland Technology.
As a provider of advanced technology solutions in industrial computing, security and surveillance, and industrial networking, the Elektronix portfolio complements Hatteland Display’s maritime display and computer systems.
Underwater Robotics Tracking
Proven in Aquaculture Trial
Joint trials by Norwegian research institute SINTEF Ocean and Sonardyne International Ltd. have proven that an acoustic positioning system can track underwater robots moving through industrial-scale fish pens. A Micro-Ranger 2 USBL positioning system was used to track an Argus mini-ROV through a pen containing an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 salmon.
Being able to accurately track ROVs in aquaculture operations will help operators to increase efficiency and productivity and reduce the need for divers.
Chesapeake Workshops
Chesapeake Technology Inc. will hold several training workshops this spring, summer and fall.
Spring training will be held May 14 to 15 at Stockton University, Atlantic City campus in New Jersey. It will cover new features in SonarWiz 7.4 and side scan, sub-bottom, bathymetry and mag processing.
Summer training will be held August 14 to 15 in Port Coquitlam, BC, Canada, at Kongsberg Mesotech offices. It will feature the latest version of SonarWiz and focus on side scan, single-beam and multibeam bathymetry.
Fall training will be held December 10 to 12 at a location in the eastern U.S. It will cover side scan, sub-bottom, bathymetry, magnetometry processing and a data collection day on the water.
Swivels for Oil, Gas Field
In Norwegian Sea
A floating storage and offloading project in the Norwegian Sea will benefit from data and process control products from MacArtney and Moog Focal. MacArtney has secured a contract from APL Norway AS to supply a Moog Focal low-voltage electrical optical swivel (LVEOS) and a medium-voltage electrical swivel (MVES) for the Equinor Njord Bravo FSO project in the Norwegian Sea.