Digital and Autonomous Maritime

Digital and Autonomous Maritime

Maritime@TSE conducts research together with the maritime ecosystem sharing an aim to provide blueprints towards digitalisation and service innovations. For the longer term, the mission is to prepare Finnish maritime industry towards autonomous traffic and business.

Maritime transport has been a catalyst for economic development and prosperity throughout its history. It enables trade and contacts between nearly all nations. It ensures the security of supply of energy, food and commodities and provides the main vehicle globally for imports and exports, as 90% of freight trade is seaborne.

Digitalisation and increased levels of autonomy in transport are expected to take leaps forward in the coming years. This development can help in creating more efficient and reliable service chains to meet the requirements for a better quality of life and global prosperity.

The mission of the Maritime@TSE research is to create internationally reproducible models for the digitization, service innovation of maritime transport and port activities. Research activities are carried out in collaboration with various actors in maritime industry.

Recent projects

Smarter (2021 – 2023)

Smart Terminals – SMARTER is part of the Sea4Value program focusing on Smart Ports

ship arriving at port

Smart Terminals (SMARTER) project enlarges the scope of DIMECC Sea4Value program to harbours and ports by develop solutions that benefit ROPAX and RORO harbours in reducing emissions by optimising harbour operations and improving cargo and people flow while improving the experience for all stakeholders.The mission of SMARTER is to create replicable models for digitalisation, service innovation and data usage & sharing in harbour environment and prepare for the future by taking steps towards smart and autonomous maritime transportation. Project focuses on experiments that speedup ship turnaround time, optimise the truck traffic and improve people flow.

SMARTER has two main objectives that are closely linked to United Nations sustainable development goal. The first objective is reduction of emissions by optimizing port logistics. Ports are often located in existing city infrastructure with restricted possibilities of re-design without major investment. The port areas are typically also condensed with limited capacity. The project objective is to seek digital solutions to overcome and make notable difference in emissions by smarter logistics. The second objective is exceptional flow and experience for the passengers and cargo. The aim is to create replicable models for organizing the passenger and cargo logistics to combine efficiency with experience and thus create wider societal impact that can be replicated globally.


Smart Terminals, SMARTER facts:

  • Duration: March 2021 – December 2023
  • Budget: 9 M€, Funding: Business Finland, companies and research organisations
  • Project type:  Business Finland funded Co-Innovation project
  • Industrial partners: ADE, Attracs, Awake.ai, Brighthouse Intelligence, Focusplan, Lingsoft, Nodeon Finland, Teleste and Visy
  • Supporting industrial partners: Port of Turku, Finnlines and Tallink Silja
  • Research organisations: Novia University of Applied Sciences, Turku university of Applied Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, Åbo Akademi, University of Turku (Faculty of Technology, CCR)
  • Governmental authorities and associations: The Finnish Meteorological Institute, Transport and Communications Agency Traficom and Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency

Smarter project's home page:

https://www.dimecc.com/dimecc-services/smart-terminals-smarter/

Contact: marikka.heikkila@utu.fi

Fairway (2020 – 2022)

Future Fairway Navigation is part of the Sea4Value program focusing on smart fairways and remote piloting

Ensuring the safety of navigation and operations is of paramount importance. Today safe navigation is a team effort consisting of the master and crew, pilots, vessel traffic services (VTS), and aids to navigation. Controlling the ship movement in all situations is essential and requires timely decisions as the ships in movement cannot be stopped very fast. Future Fairway is a transformative program that aims for wide societal influence by providing concrete research-based recommendations on regulation, business, data usage & sharing and for standardization. In particular, the program targets on research and demonstrations of smart fairways and remote pilotage.

Fairway program also generates a vision and steps toward smart fairway and its features and services. Implementing the program is a central steps towards a faster, more efficient, increasingly sustainable, in other words, smarter supply chain, which is an essential part of a future autonomous maritime transport system.


Future Fairway Navigation facts:

  • Duration: February 2020 – Dec 2022
  • Budget: 6 M€, Funding: Business Finland, companies and research organisations
  • Project type:  Business Finland funded Co-Innovation project
  • Industrial partners: Awake.ai, Brighthouse Intelligence, Finnpilot Pilotage, Ericsson, Haltian Empathic Building, Meyer Turku.
  • Supporting industrial partners: ESL Shipping, Neste, Port of Helsinki, Port of Rauma, Port of Turku
  • Research organisations: Aalto University, Novia University of Applied Sciences, Tampere University, University of Jyväskylä, University of Turku (CCR, dept of information system science, Faculty of Law)
  • Governmental authorities and associations: The Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finnish Shipowners’ Association, Transport and Communications Agency Traficom, Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency

Fairway project's home page: 

https://www.dimecc.com/dimecc-services/future-fairway-navigation/

Contact: marikka.heikkila@utu.fi

Exoprodigi 2021

EXOPRODIGI – Expanding efforts to bring eco-efficiency to maritime industry processes in Baltic Sea Region via digital tools

EXOPRODIGI builds on the findings of ECOPRODIGI project. The intention is to further improve the eco-efficient use of maritime industry resources with the help of digital tools and solutions which support decision making, create transparency, reduce working hours and decrease waste, emissions and energy consumption. Similarly to ECOPRODIGI, the aim in EXOPRODIGI is to enhance the institutional capacity of maritime industry end-users at various stages of vessel life-cycle; i.e. during voyages, stowage operations and at the assembly processes at shipyards. The partnership includes companies, universities and other organisations working in and with maritime industry in the Baltic Sea region.


Duration: 01/01/2021 – 30/09/2021

Type: Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme project

Total budget: 879 000 EUR (of which European Regional Development Fund co-financing 674 000 EUR)

Lead partner: University of Turku, Pan-European Institute

Project partners: J. Lauritzen (DK), Meyer Turku (FI), University of Southern Denmark (DK), DFDS (DK), Carina Solutions Oy (FI), Danish Maritime (DK), JSC “Western Baltic Engineering” (LT), Klaipeda Science and Technology Park (LT), Island Ferry Secretariat (DK), Kockum Sonics AB (SWE), Centrum Balticum (FI), Visinator (SWE)

More information: https://ecoprodigi.eu/exoprodigi

A short video about the project: https://ecoprodigi.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/EXOPRODIGI-20210914.mp4

 

Design for Value (2017-2019)

Program focused on door-to-door supply chains which are rapidly changing towards ecosystems of fully autonomous system-of-systems.  Program work was conducted in two interrelated areas: autonomous maritime logistics and manufacturing use cases.


D4V facts:

Duration: 2017 – 2019

Budget: 13 M€, Funding: Business Finland, companies and research organisations

Project type:  Business Finland funded Co-Innovation project

Partners: : 11 companies from maritime and technology industries, 9 research organisations

More information. https://www.dimecc.com/dimecc-services/design-for-value-d4v/

Contact: marikka.heikkila@utu.fi

Webinar with Singapore Maritime Institute on Digital Port Ecosystem