DIGITALISATION
TRIALS OF LR DIGITAL TWIN TOOL UNDERWAY Mark Darley, Director Marine & Offshore at Lloyd’s Register (LR) told The Motorship that the class society is planning to bring a machine learning based tool based on a digital twin model of systems aboard individual vessels to market later this year “Trials of the technology are currently underway,” Darley confirmed in an exclusive interview at Nor-Shipping, adding that the solution was likely to be launched before the end of the year. The digital twin-based solution has been developed by LR drawing on its experience with digital twin solutions in the aviation and offshore and gas sectors, Darley confirmed. LR has been carrying out research into digital twin solutions for a number of years, and sees particular areas where the class society can add value for shipowners. Unlike current digital twin solutions, which typically are not updated with conversion or repair work after the launch of a vessel, the new LR solution is intended to act as a central repository of component and system level data. Darley compared the situation with the current highly distributed process of maintaining records on equipment. “The records of inspections of pieces of equipment, carried out by superintendents, managers, surveyors… are maintained across so many spreadsheets, so many pieces of paper at the moment. Just by maintaining this digital representation of your ship would have a value when you come to S&P activity.” The platform will then be able to incorporate data supplied
from assets around the ship. “By building out that digital repository picture with in-service notes and surveys, layered on top of the ship component information that LR gathered from our involvement with the shipyard during construction, will allow us to offer insights”. One of the immediate focuses will be on the application of machine learning analytics to the data, Darley added. “This will let us start to break down failure periodicity”, opening up the door to advances in predictive maintenance. Darley cited experience in other industries where predictive maintenance was more widely used. There were also specific advantages to a change in approach for some systems. “We know that there are certain systems that perform better when they aren’t physically opened up repeatedly over time.” Longer term, the introduction of digital twin based solutions is expected to contribute to a wider debate around reforms to the current periodic survey and maintenance cycles, which are based on traditional five-year cycles. “From a class perspective, it's about working with data providers and the IMO to build the case, so that we can start to move away from five-year survey cycles,” Darley concluded.
MAN ES digital chief expects digitalisation roll-out to accelerate Gregory Puckett, Head of Group Digital at MAN Energy Solutions tells The Motorship he expects further enhancement of realtime monitoring solutions and “predictive services” to reach the market “within 12 to 18 months”. Puckett noted that MAN ES intends to continue to focus on developing digitised solutions around predictive services. One of the advantages of the recent deal to select Amazon Web Services as MAN ES’ preferred cloud provider was that it would provide the foundation for advanced analytics, machine learning, and Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities for MAN’s CEON platform. “To give you a concrete example, we have recently introduced a Health Score Algorithm in our Industrials segment. It is an AI based anomaly detection algorithm, which monitors incoming data 24/7 and therefore provides a holistic machine train supervision. The Health Score allows to check the train status at a glance and guides the domain expert to the critical component via different hierarchy levels:
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train, sub-asset, sub-component, sensor. The deal with AWS is likely to help MAN ES accelerate the roll out of the solution to the maritime segment “within the next 12 months”, simply by shortening the development cycle of the machine learning models. The Motorship notes that identifying upcoming replacement component requirements with long lead times is also likely to create opportunities for PrimeServ to minimise downtime by scheduling maintenance around operational requirements. A second area of development included extending the scope of MAN ES’ existing digital services. In addition to its monitoring and advisory service (PrimeServ Assist) MAN ES can offer data services for customers who prefer to integrate raw, or enriched MAN data feeds into their own systems. “And finally, MAN-ES digital, engineering and automation teams rapidly developing Edge-based services on board a vessel,” Puckett adds. The initial focus is on using AWS services like GreenGrass or IoT Core to provide insights – or “Advice on Vessel”
– around engine performance monitoring and operational optimisation. However, the range of MAN ES’ digital offerings is set to expand, meeting increasing customer demand for solutions around their emissions footprint. Decarbonisation was one of the key focuses of MAN ES’ recent MoU with DNV, Puckett added, along with digitalisation. digita t lisation. ta
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