Cons.A.R. - Italian Shipowner's Research Consortium

Project title
FLAGSHIP

Duration
48 months (4 years)

The vision of FLAGSHIP is to create the mechanism by which the expertise of all the required actors can be brought together in real time, independently of their location, and given the required information (in the right format, at the right time and incorporating the highest level of knowledge) to better manage all the questions which confront a ship operator: that includes issues relating to the ship itself and its equipment (e.g. hull monitoring, equipment diagnostics, maintenance planning), its day-to-day operation (e.g. navigation, cargo, rule compliance) as well as emergencies and other exceptional situations (collision, fire, etc.).
FLAGSHIP will develop not just the infrastructure for collecting data but also the processing capability for extracting knowledge out of data and use it in on-board operations in routine and emergency situations, remote diagnostics and maintenance systems and in the provision of safety and environmental indicators for a whole shipping operation. The framework for integrated decision support systems will be based on an open architecture to facilitate easy integration with existing on-board systems (e.g. propulsion, hull, navigation, flooding, fire, ventilation etc). Cargo operation and handling, including real-time scheduling will be addressed, as well as monitoring systems for real-time assessment of structures and components and environmental conditions. The tools and procedures will be based on open systems for on-line link between ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore, extending not just to communication with owners/management office but to all relevant actors involved in co-operative decision support both for day-to-day operations and better management of accidents. This also includes automatic notification and transfer of updated rules and regulations between ship, management office and agent. The project will address the impact of new technologies on HSE requirements, and organisations onboard and ashore, and will take into account the next generation of navigation, communication and reporting technologies as well as upcoming IMO and EU rules. Project findings and developments will be implemented and demonstrated on board three different vessel categories.

Main activities performed by CONS.A.R. in the second year of the FLAGSHIP project are listed below:

WP B. Nautical operation and support
SP B3: "Nautical operation and bridge decision support"

Task B3.1: "User requirement"
During the kick-off meeting in Hamburg of July 2008 CONS.A.R. presented a template for the interviews to conduct among the seafarers in order to give an assessment of the proposed "visions" about the new technologies that could potentially be introduced in future to give an enhanced support for the navigation and bridge processes.
Consar has then distributed the final questionnaire among its associated shipping companies and we have gathered all the data and organized the results in a report which has been finally included in the final deliverable of the task.

Task B3.2: "Bridge specification"
On the basis of the results obtained in InMare project, CONS.A.R. provided proper inputs to the task for what regards the navigation support on the bridge. CONS.A.R. has also analyzed the most relevant bridge procedures in order to detect which are the bridge processes which require more attention by the deck officer and that would require, if available or feasible, the use of support technologies which can reduce the attention of the officer in order to be redirected from equipments to the world outside of the ship.

WP C. Emergency management
SP C1: "Cooperative decision support"

Task C1.3: "Cost benefit analysis"
For the development of this task CONS.A.R. has analysed a huge amount of data from IMO, IUMI, EQUASIS, CEFOR and other available sources in order to make a statistical study about serious and very serious casualty: the aim was to assess the impact of the most frequent casualties for the cost/benefit analysis.
Consar also took care of the definition of the non quantitative aspects concerning benefits connected to the introduction of the emergency management system, which is the main objective of the sub-project.

WP D. Supporting Actions
SP D2: "Health & Safety, Organization & Processes"

Task D2.2: "W.P. analysis"
CONS.A.R. is the main responsible of this sub-project.
The task has been divided in two main sections:
- The first phase concerned a literature review of international and national regulations about the work processes and the introduction of some pieces of technology onboard ships. CONS.A.R. was in charge to fulfil a review of the Italian and French legislation and have found the relevant information about crew manning regulations and connected impact of technologies.
- For the second phase, more focused on work processes on board, CONS.A.R., together with NTUA and Cardiff, defined a methodology for the completion of the work composed by several steps. First of all, a table containing the work processes of major interest for the different aspect considered (bridge, administrative, etc.) was created.
On the basis of this table CONS.A.R. cooperated with NTUA in creating a questionnaire in order to assess the level achieved by the ships in relations to several aspect (technology deployment level, involved personnel, time factors, risk factors) of the work processes performed on board.
CONS.A.R. contributed to the survey by performing some interviews on board associated ships.

Third year of activities is ongoing. In particular, sub-projects concerning the navigation support system and emergency management systems development, the security aspects for seafarers and the optimisation of onboard operations are progressing.

ECSA - European Community Shipowners' Association
Teekay Shipping corporation
Minoan Lines
V.Ships UK
Carnival Corporation & plc
Danaos Shipping Co. Ltd.
Containerships
NSA - Norwegian Shipowners' Association
Cons.A.R. - Consorzio Armatori per la Ricerca s.r.l.
Perseveranza s.p.a. di Navigazione
CSS
NSB - Niederelbe Schiffahrtsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG
KVNR - Koninklijke Vereniging van Nederlandse Reders
Portline - Transportes Maritimos Internacionais, SA
ASME - Altair Special Maritime Enterprise
Superfast Ferries S.A.
RR - Rolls-Royce plc
SAM Electronics GmbH
Autronica Fire and Security AS
Lyngsø Marine A/S
SSA - Shipbuilder and Shiprepairers Association
Lodic AS
EMEC - European Marine Equipment Council
GL - Germanischer Lloyd AG
RINA - Registro Italiano Navale spa
BV - Bureau Veritas
Port Authority of Valencia
TBS - Trans-Base Soler, S.L.
SDS - Spanish Depot Service, S.A.
MW - Meyer Werft GmbH
Aker Yards S.A.
CESA - Community of European Shipyards Association
Temis S.A.
Regs4ships Ltd
MJC2 Limited
SEMA2 srl
ISDEFE - Ingenieria de Siatemas para la Defensa di España S.A.
Sirenha
BMT - British Maritime Technology Ltd
MARINTEK - Norsk Marinteknisk Forskningsinstitutt
SSRC - University of Strathclyde
NTNU - Norwegian University of Science and Technology
NTUA - National Technical University of Athens
Cardiff University
IST - Insituto Superior Tecnico
WEGEMT - European Association of Universities in Marine Technology and Related Sciences