If ship operators have an accurate grasp on the effects of meteorological and hydrographic conditions on a ship’s fuel performance, they can determine whether it is better, in terms of fuel efficiency, to take the shortest route, or to take a longer route to avoid the wind and waves.
However, as existing ship performance estimation technologies rely on experiments with model ships in tanks of water, or on physics model simulations, they cannot take into account the complicated interactions of the wind, waves, and ocean currents with ship conditions. This problem led to large margins of error in ship performance predictions.
With this issue in mind, Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd. has developed new technology that uses the analysis of ship-related big data to estimate fuel efficiency, speed and other performance parameters in actual sea conditions, to within the highly accurate margin of error of less than 5%.
By decreasing the margin of error, this new technology enables the accurate evaluation of ship performance, design feedback, and significant improvements in fuel efficiency when used in ship navigation. Fujitsu Laboratories has also demonstrated that the application of the technology could improve fuel efficiency by about 5% based on previous results.
The technology uses Fujitsu Laboratories’ propriety high-dimensional statistical analysis technology to estimate the performance of ships sailing at sea. It utilises a vast volumes of measurement data gathered while the ship is underway, including sensor data of meteorological and hydrographic conditions such as wind, waves, and ocean currents, ship engine log data, and data about the speed and position of the ship.
By carrying out joint research with Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Fujitsu Laboratories applied this technology to measured data held by the university from actual ships at sea, including wind and wave data, and the ship’s fuel consumption, and successfully and accurately estimated the ship’s speed performance and fuel consumption performance to within a 5% margin of error. By combining this technology with the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology’s weather routing simulation, they verified that, for a Pacific Ocean shipping route from Tokyo to Los Angeles, by taking an optimal route based on the ship’s performance, as determined by this technology, as opposed to the most direct route, fuel consumption could be cut by about 5%, greatly reducing both fuel costs and CO2 emissions.
Fujitsu Laboratories will continue to improve prediction accuracy through joint research with Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. In addition, they will carry out trials with a number of ship types and routes, aiming to offer services through Fujitsu’s location information cloud service, FUJITSU Intelligent Society Solution SPATIOWL, in fiscal 2016.
Main image: Physics model vs the newly developed technology
Ship Efficiency Review News
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