Furuno, an electronic chart display and information system supplier, will provide 43 ships with Sea Traffic Management (STM) compatible on-board systems to advance towards securing an open standard for the 'connected' ship.
The STM concept provides vessels with the ability to see each other’s planned routes and gives navigators a more complete picture of how surrounding vessels will influence their onward voyage. Supplied services during the test include route optimisation, enhanced monitoring, port call synchronisation and ship-to-ship route exchange.
Using this data, other services are able to recommend routes that will avoid congestion in areas with high traffic and environmentally sensitive areas. It aims to save fuel, improve port call efficiency and reduce accidents.
The information exchange will improve planning and performance regarding arrivals, departures and turnaround times.
An STM Validation Project will demonstrate the STM concept in large-scale test beds for both the Nordic and Mediterranean Seas, encompassing around 300 vessels, 13 ports and five shore-based service centres while using the European Maritime Simulator Network.
The STM project was started in 2015 and will run until the end of 2018. It includes over 50 partners, 13 countries and involves the private, public and academic sector. It has a US$46 million budget with 50% co-financed by the EU.
Björn Andreasson,a Test Manager with the Swedish Maritime Administration, said: “To have a fourth supplier delivering systems proves the general interest in the STM concept. The future developments of STM will be driven by commercial actors like Furuno.”
Tero Airissalo, Sales & Marketing Manager at Furuno, added: “Furuno is striving to be among the first with new technology and solutions. We recognise the long-term benefits of STM in the form of higher security and safety, increased efficiency and a good impact on the environment.
“But STM is also beneficial in the near future. In the current test, customers using our system will save a lot of fuel through better optimised routes and better timing of the port call arrival.”
