With modern cruise ships carrying upwards of 4,000 people, any potential collision could have vast and tragic consequences. SEA-AHED can help to reduce risk significantly while also contributing directly to safety through on board training. It is capable of providing situational awareness and predicting the behaviour of the vessel in situations where some machinery fails, giving the person at the helm information regarding the consequences of any manoeuvring action and rapid automatic alerts as to looming hazards. Developed by six partners in the UK, Germany, Italy and Poland, SEA-AHED had three principal objectives.

It would create systems enabling shipyards and ship owners to assess the manoeuvring characteristics of vessels at an early stage of design. It would develop a navigational aid displaying in real time the vessel’s current position together with future predicted or simulated positions and would be capable of advising the pilot of potentials hazards. Finally, it would develop a manoeuvring training aid allowing crews to replay previous manoeuvres and demonstrate the effects of alternate actions on the basis of real environmental information.

The system takes account of parameters such as wind speed, wind direction, water depth, currents, actual rudder angles, demanded rudder angles and thrusters performance in considering the non-linear and time variable manoeuvring characteristics of the vessel. It also exploits recent advances in aerospace and robotics applications. The system developers expects in excess of a 300% return on research investment in the five years following the completion of the project as direct sales extend to other types of vessel and SEA-AHED lends itself to the development of intelligent cruise control and automatic docking.

MJ Information No: 20413