Wärtsilä tests remote control ship operating capability

Wärtsilä, in collaboration with Gulfmark Offshore, has realized testing of remote control of ship operations, on August 21, off the North Sea coast of Scotland.

The testing involved driving the vessel through a sequence of manoeuvres using a combination of Dynamic Positioning (DP) and manual joystick control. Although the test vessel was in the North Sea, the remote control navigating was carried out from the Wärtsilä office located in San Diego, California, 8000 km away.

The ‘Highland Chieftain’ vessel, provided by US-based Gulfmark, is an 80-metre platform supply vessel featured temporarily additional software to the DP system, in order to route data over the vessel’s satellite link to the onshore work station in California.

Most importantly, the Wärtsilä testing was carried out using standard bandwidth onboard satellite communication. No land-based technology was used for the communications between the vessel and the remote operator work station.

The test was conducted over an almost 4 hour period, during which time the vessel was driven through a series of manoeuvres at both high and low speeds.

    “In the age of digitalisation, the future Smart Marine ecosystem will involve connecting ‘smart’ vessels with ‘smart’ ports to enable an even more efficient use of resources. It will also reduce the impact on climate while enhancing safety,” says Roger Holm, President, Wärtsilä Marine Solutions.

    Andrea Morgante, Head of Digital, Wärtsilä Marine Solutions adds: “One of the first and most critical hurdles to overcome along the path to the enablement of intelligent shipping is to develop efficient and reliable remote control and monitoring capabilities, taking factors such as bandwidth limitations and cyber security into consideration. This test provides a clear indication that we are well on the way to achieving this.”