Controlling huge ships

When large passenger or cargo ships manoeuvre in narrow straits or have to moor at keys in foreign harbours, the pilot’s local knowledge and gut feeling are to a large degree responsible for ensuring the manoeuvre’s success.

As a rule, he can get a lot of help and support from the already-existing device, a SEAMate1A® that enables him to read all the ship’s instruments, but things such as the ship’s braking distance, leeway caused by currents or wind – and, consequently, how much space he needs to turn the ship around its axis, among professionals called ”rate of turn” – those he needs to know by heart. The company that have manufactured the pilot’s wireless helper, SEAMate1A®, is called Mølgaard NetCom A/S and is located in Thisted in Northern Jutland. And they would be happy to develop a decision support system for the pilot enabling him to calculate the ship’s “rate of turn” – maybe by use of a combination of gyro and GPS. “Therefore we were interested when trade promotion officer Flemming Toftdal Olesen, Thisted, told us that it was possible for us to get a visit from two guys from something called CISS at Aalborg University. We had never heard of CISS, but Flemming spoke so warmly about them that we chose to set up a meeting. The visitors were director Kim Gulstrand Larsen and vice director Henrik Schiøler – and it quickly became an interesting conversation,” director Søren Madsen from Mølgaard NetCom A/S tells.

It is possible!

The visit at Mølgaard NetCom A/S took place at the end of 2006 and led to an agreement between the company and CISS stating that over a project period of four moths, CISS was to scan the market in order to locate solutions enabling the expansion of SEAMate1A® to also include the “rate of turn” feature. This was to take place under the auspices of the newly-started CISS VIP, and several persons at Aalborg University became associated with the project: Vice director in CISS, associate professor Henrik Schiøler, Professor Kaj Borre, The Department of Communication and Psychology, and PhD student Kazimieras Bagdonas, CISS. “The project was initiated in the spring of 2007, and when it ended, we had gotten proof that what we wanted to do was possible. We can actually expand our existing product, SEAMate1A® to include a further “rate of turn” feature. As a rule, it is the pilot’s experience that counts where a ship’s ”rate of turn” is concerned – but a technical support device will always be able to help him out and confirm his proposed course of action. So far so good – now the next phase starts: What will the production costs of the finished product be, and what price is acceptable for the market? It needs to be cost-efficient,” Søren Madsen adds.

Access to acute minds

While Mølgaard NetCom A/S consider whether to continue working with the expansion for SEAMate1A®, Søren Madsen evaluates the company’s first encounter with CISS VIP. He makes no secret of the fact that there is a huge difference between the work methods and principles in an industrial development department and those used in the world of research at the university, and that it takes some time for a company to grow accustomed to that. But the advantages of a collaboration with CISS are definitely worth considering. ”We have gotten four months’ of research to a more than favourable price, not to mention the possibility of utilizing some of the most acute minds within this field. And at the same time, we have had access to a range of state-of-the-art test facilities,” Søren Madsen emphasises.