INTERSCHALT maritime systems AG has developed and launched a data normalisation application that features innovations for onboard data collection, normalisation and provision from ship systems.
The Maritime Data Engine (MDE) application enables a pool of data to be tapped into, using all data, from one or more ships of a fleet with different data structures, to be normalised and quickly made usable. It also makes real-time data available in the standardised OPC-UA interface for third party system integration.
When installed onboard a ship, information from the VDRs is fed into the data engine, allowing ship operators and owners to analyse the data in real-time. A normalised process image is created of the ships and if installed on land and all ships are connected wide a network connection, the MDE allows normalised process images of the entire fleet. This then reduces the cost-intensive development of third party solutions for individual ship and ship systems.
As each individual ship and entire fleets have different unique equipment configurations, normalising the data for general and system-independent usage can be challenging.
This often requires each supplier to install his own system onboard, requiring more effort than using a uniform bundled data cloud from all areas of the ship, as MDE provides.
MDE has applications that are specifically for passenger vessels, tankers and research ships. Aida Cruises and Costa Crociere are using MDE for real-time ship data monitoring at the new fleet operation centre of their joint marine operations unit, of Carnival Maritime in Hamburg.
