Alpha Ori Technology Group announced that its SMARTShip technology has received AL-SAFE notation from Lloyd’s Register. This first of its kind certificate of class was awarded to a Singapore-flagged LPG carrier newbuilding, the Trammo Dietlin.
The vessel, owned by Global United Gas Carriers, has been AL-2 and AL-3 certified. The Alpha Ori-installed SMARTShip systems on-board the vessel are intelligent to provide decision support to the crew and point specific applications can be remotely controlled from shore.
Mr. Sam Jha, the Chief Business Officer of Alpha Ori, said, “The Lloyd’s Register’s first-ever certification of Alpha Ori’s SMARTShip technology marks the beginning of maritech transformation that will revolutionize the maritime transportation industry and drive economic value for all stakeholders.” and he added: “It was a matter of great pride for Global United that its vessel was the first ship in the world to achieve this autonomous level of certification.”
As the company explained, the Alpha Ori’s SMARTShip technology is an IoT platform that gathers thousands of data points from various vessel systems, machineries, sensors and ingest the data into a very high power computing server. The on-board IoT server analyses this data and enables localized decision support application for the crew. All ship-specific data sent to shore coupled with historical data analytics from other vessels instantaneously enables the office to make more informed recommendations to the ship staff and remotely control certain specific vessel applications.
LR explains that this is the first example of a ship certified to stream data into a big data platform. The autonomous systems were enabled by Alpha Ori Technology with the purpose of several systems being able to operate with a level of automation onboard three vessels to varying degrees. The aim was to minimise human error and make the operation of ships systems safe and more efficient when running in autonomous mode. LR provided independent assurance services to the shipowner during these important first steps, with the objective of applying descriptive notation to the vessels in recognition of the work and certifying the systems as safe.
Elements of the navigation, cargo and machinery systems have been certified AL2, which means ‘systems provide on and off-ship decision support for operators’. This provides operators and shore-based support staff with instant access to operating data from these systems for monitoring and diagnostics through the cloud, with which they can make more informed decisions and respond to issues faster and more efficiently.
The Air Handling Unit has been certified AL3 which means ‘systems that operate autonomously, but with an active human ‘in-the-loop’’,LR says.
