The fourth industrial revolution is expected to immensely affect maritime transport, with technology trends like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics driving a new pathway for shipping’s industry’s digital transformation and where smart autonomous ships will shape a new and fully interconnected maritime ecosystem.
And while shipping is considered as a tradition-driven industry, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have accelerated digitalization progress and innovation, experts agreed during the 2022 virtual SMART4SEA Forum earlier in February.
Acceleration of technology advancements: The silver lines of COVID-19
The impact of the pandemic to shipping industry is quite broad, including both disruptions and drivers in terms of digitalization. A silver line is increased acceptance of digitalization and digital tools, i.e., online meetings, helping the industry move faster towards a route which was, however, already set, argued Mrs. Jillian Carson-Jackson, President of Nautical Institute.
The biggest silver lining is that because all of us had to await in the same way, it propelled connectivity in shipping faster. It’s not a revolution, it is an evolution of already available technologies,
…added Mr. Manish Singh, CEO, Ocean Technologies Group.
The pandemic came rapidly and there was no baseline for the industry to benchmark, but once it came, it accelerated the adoption of certain technologies and ways of working, noted Mr. Dominic Ng, Head of Solutions Advisory, Wärtsilä Voyage, who cited four specific areas of advancement:
- Decision support, translated into a lot more shoreside capability to monitor and support the vessels
- Remote compliance in terms of remote surveys advancements
- Remote Installation of systems without attendants
- Remote telemedicine in terms of medication and diagnosis
What are the main drivers for shipping in the next 5-10 years?
Looking in the next 5-10 years, emerging technologies are an interesting point of focus, said Mrs. Carson-Jackson, arguing however that, what we may consider as “emerging” in the maritime sector may actually be already well-used in other industries.
“So we have an opportunity to look at what other industries do…Rather than creating our own approaches we can actually adopt what is happening in other industries. One of these areas is automation and autonomous systems,”..she noted.
“Efficiency will improve even with AI helping to track down what is not working correctly. We will be pushed into more accurate reporting for the environment. Shipping companies won’t disappear, but they will have to adapt to the new ways of things”, said Capt. Ahmed Khan, Director of Fleet Management, ShipIn Systems.
What are the main barriers for shipping in the next 5-10 years?
#1 The skilling gap: A lack of a common approach in skilling people and lack of standardization are main barriers with respect to the future of shipping digitalization. For example, Mrs. Carson-Jackson stressed the need for shipping to recognize the human capital and start realizing that we cannot train people for specific pieces of equipment, but a more holistic approach is required.
“If we have so many things that are changing, we will not be able to have trained people in a specific piece of equipment, because this is going to change…Providing people with an opportunity to have access to training apps in real-time, to help take those critical thinking and problem solving skills that they have and give them specific bits of knowledge to address an issue that maybe arising. It is difficult to think how the future will look like for young people coming for training,”, she explained.
#2 Lack of standardization: One of the common blockers in shipping is the fragmented market, making the business case difficult for anyone who wants to justify an investment, said Mr. Ng., which is also reflected to the lack of standardized data and consequently incompatibility of data. A major barrier lies in the sector’s inability to have information in time, said Mr. Singh, i.e., to analyze and make use of data in real time, thus, to obtain information that will support better decision-making, added Capt. Khan.
#3 Ineffective regulation: While regulations are there, their implementation is a major issue with respect to smart developments, panelists stressed.
“While regulation is progressing in the environmental field, there is currently no regulatory framework for any autonomous vessel to operate. You cannot class this vessel, you cannot even ask for a flag state because there are no regulations…So companies do not even think of investing, even if they have a robust solution…not to mention that EU and the IMO provide different regulations, sometimes conflicting,”…argued Mr. Dimitris Theodossiou, Managing Director, Danaos Management S.A.
#4 Cyber security landscape: one of the certain upcoming trends for maritime is running vessels from shore. But bringing lots of sensors onboard and connect them to the land networks, we need to take seriously into account cyber security, added Mr. Theodossiou.
If you had to choose one thing for moving shipping forward with respect to connectivity, what would it be?
“Clearer policy” – Mr. Manish Singh, Ocean Technologies Group
“Optimization, to drive technology advancement”- Mr. Dominic Ng, Wärtsilä Voyage
“Better ship-to-shore collaboration” -Capt. Ahmed Khan, ShipIn Systems
“Rethinking and removing complexity in supply chain” -Mr. Dimitris Theodossiou, Danaos Management
“Collaboration and innovation” – Mrs. Carson-Jackson, The Nautical Institute
“What if humans and machines can collaborate faster? That we can work towards the future in an innovation vision to solve the problems that will continue: the new fuels, the regulatory changers, the need for standardization, etc.? We just need to bring all these dots together and look to a future that we can bring human-machine collaboration together to solve these problems,”…concluded Mrs. Carson-Jackson.
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