The global shipping industry is undergoing a transformation with efficiency and regulatory compliance at the fore of decision-making and planning.

At the same time shipping is experiencing a data revolution like many other industries. More shipping companies are realising the benefits of digitalisation and automated performance monitoring in their drives to raise operational efficiency.

The ability to handle and analyse data to obtain actionable knowledge, predictions and insights allows for continuous process improvements and optimal performance throughout the lifetime of the asset.

Situational awareness at sea and in maritime operations, on a large scale, requires a unified approach to data collection and analysis system architecture, harmonising the collection of data, sensor-enabled devices and the networks, in order to form an interoperable “maritime ecosystem”.

Today, the full knowledge of how the complete fleet – down to vessel, down to system, down to single parameter – really performs in actual operating conditions, is very well visible thanks to LAROS platform.

LAROS establishes an automatic and reliable data communication infrastructure to collect high dimensional data on board and to transfer it as relevant and actionable information to the shore-based systems.

LAROS is an open architecture platform enabling wireless data collection from a multitude of systems and providing analytics to meaningfully transform it. It is the bridge between the vessels and their systems, and onshore enterprise resources.

The received fleet data collection and analytics enables the monitoring of every aspect of the shipping operations, and processes data into intelligence which allows management to make timely and informed decisions.

LAROS has been taken into full operational use with several customers. The customers have online access to stay fully aware of the detailed performance of the ships in near real time.

Aggregation of automatically collected actual values with sea trials, model test data and other operational and technical benchmarks into performance indicators, is a proven approach to efficiency management as the deviation from the ideal, aging and abnormal or subnormal operation is crucial for the total system operational predictability and the need for maintenance.

Comparing vessels / systems performance over time, will give insight into how to control environmental impact and reduce the carbon footprint. Also by sharing best practices and energy awareness throughout the fleet, cost are significantly reduced.

Reduction of fuel consumption is a major challenge as fuel cost is one of the biggest expenditures and environmentally traced. Tracking gross consumption over a period of days, weeks, months or even longer periods, lacks the reliability and impact of real time monitoring.

Real time fuel consumption and propulsion efficiency monitoring are Key Performance Indicators and parameters, produced by LAROS integrated data collection and analytics. Consequently, significant value is added, when the fuel data is monitored, tracked, analysed and integrated along with other key data, providing synergies that transcend simple fuel monitoring.

Detailed fuel monitoring allows the operator to evaluate efficiency at all points and take the required actions. LAROS allows you to go even further, to develop an optimum speed profile on the spot for a given route, or voyage, or under certain operational conditions, disturbances or constrains.

In a ship’s operations, the maintenance schedule of the vessel has a significant effect on the energy consumption and, subsequently, to the environmental footprint of it. However, without continuous information on the ship’s performance, it is impossible to know if, for example, hull cleaning should be performed once a month or once a year. With accurate information, the optimum maintenance schedule can be determined.

Apart from the hull, the important machinery of the engine room, such as the main engine, boilers, auxiliary engines, ballast and cargo, are also monitored.

This leads to moving away from what are called ‘fixed’ maintenance intervals and progressing towards tailored ‘predictive’ maintenance and ‘on condition’ maintenance. Data analytics will reveal maintenance optimisation and advantageous scheduling, as well as operational deployment and planning.

Traditional engineering methods predict the vessel’s performance based on ideal conditions benchmarking. However off-design performance awareness requires multiple point of interest data and high frequency collection that eventually results in more accurate assessments.

The ability to manage all data and information from different systems onboard in a safe, detailed and efficient manner enables a new level of capability to analyse and monitor situations, critical operations and adverse conditions.

LAROS holistic performance awareness provides the tools to analyse and optimize eco-efficient ship operation by identifying the root cause of deviations and quickly generate insight into a fleet’s overall efficiency.

LAROS ‘on board’ offers situational and environmental awareness, complete control and regulatory compliance, optimised operations, better cooperation between onboard crew and HQ’s operators, and environmental excellence.

When the shipping company analyses the resulting information, it can change how and where decisions are made and who makes them.

Feedback over the life of the vessels forms a continuous process of the data-centric operational cycle. The net effect is the ability to accelerate the information intelligence cycles and to perform the process more often, with more accurate data.

Utilisation of maritime big data is going to pave the path towards greater sustainability and improved environmental performance.

It is strongly believed that over coming years, integrated data, empowering green shipping, is going to be the force that will determine the competency levels needed from the seafarers of tomorrow, the capabilities of ships at sea and ultimately the sustainable future of the shipping industry.

PRISMA ELECTRONICS has built and offers a holistic solution to the maritime market – the LAROS system, enhancing the Information Intelligence inside shipping companies, making maritime integrated data-based decision making and planning a reality.

LAROS provides now, and for the future, the complete framework for a state of the art information driven operation of ships, that drives today’s shipping industry operations and boosts all assets of fleet management.