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82 DIGITALISATION | REMOTE MONITORING 83

Impact loads
This raises the question what were the motivations
behind installing a vessel monitoring system on board
a crew transfer vessel? “For this client, one of the most
important aspects was to measure the impact of the
boat landing on the turbine platform,” replies Thijs
Muskens, design & proposal engineer at Damen. “These
turbines are designed to cope with a certain load and
it is the captain's responsibility – and therefore our
responsibility – to make the approach as smooth as
possible and not exceed the impact threshold limit.
Offshore wind majors are becoming increasingly data-
driven and desire fact-based proof of impact loads for
the vessels operating in a wind farm. This proof can be
generated by the connected ship system.”

In addition to the actual landing on the turbine,
comfortable transport from shore to the wind farm is
another part of the process. To this end, another reason
to gather data is to improve the comfort of this journey.
“This is an important feature in our entire range of
high speed craft,” he continues. “We want vessels
like the FCS 2710 to be as comfortable as possible. In
general, the technical personnel on board do not have
that much experience at sea and, as a result, are more
prone to seasickness than experienced crews. We want
to postpone this for as long as possible and gaining
insight into the perceived comfort can help us do so.”
Six degrees of freedom
A six degree of freedom accelerometer sensor is used
to measure the amount of movement on the vessel.
“These measure, amongst others, pitch, heave and yaw,”
explains Thijs. “If the captain can see the acceleration
levels during sailing, this can be linked to the general
well-being of the passengers.” These data relating to
accelerations have a dual purpose. “Of course, it is very
useful for the captain to have on-the-spot feedback.
But our customers also want to know the comfort levels
on board, and, importantly, to be able to back this up
with hard data.” translate the human experience into numbers. Learning from the Moreover, we can also use these data to improve the designs of
data is important – this will allow us to advise our clients on their our vessels.”
One of the difficult things to determine is an sailing profile, for instance.”
acceptable level of vertical acceleration. This is due Installed as standard
to the subjective nature of the human experience. Different questions, different answers Vessel monitoring is certainly a powerful tool in the shipbuilder’s
“Storing data and linking it to the experience of the The offshore wind sector – indeed, the entire maritime industry – is tool box. At its simplest, it is a method to observe what is
crew can help with this,” says Matthijs Richelle, Damen “What we are currently developing is a becoming increasingly driven by data. Providing data on a vast happening with the operations of a vessel at any given time. “In
Services development manager. “A future plan that array of parameters – including sea state, wind direction and effect it is a live representation of what is happening on the
we are experimenting with is a ‘smiley face-sad face’ system that is based on data gathered – number of transfers – is becoming the new industry standard. It vessel,“ says Matthijs to highlight how Damen is endeavouring to
feedback method to measure perceived comfort. By should, therefore, be of no surprise to read that Damen is not maximise to the full potential of vessel monitoring by taking this
matching comfort levels to actual data parameters an analysis tool that will assist onshore limiting its work on the subject of vessel monitoring solely to a step further. “What we are currently developing is a system that
such as wave height and ship motions, we are trying to its Fast Crew Suppliers. “Every product that Damen builds has is based on the data gathered – an analytical tool that will assist
teams to improve and create insight into different parameters in terms of performance and we want to onshore teams to improve and create insight into their offshore
answer the different questions that each product group has,” operations.” The possibilities are undeniably extensive and, in fact,
their offshore operations.” notes Thijs. “Speed and comfort are the most crucial factors for Damen is installing data collection systems on all newbuild vessels
our high speed craft. Tugs are different though – then it’s more with a compatible alarm monitoring system as standard. In terms
about towing force. For offshore transport, workability and fuel of passenger comfort and sailing routes, for instance, concrete
consumption are important. And for dredging, we propose looking progress has already been made. Looking ahead to the impact that
at dredge production rates and performance. The most important vessel monitoring will have on preventative maintenance, vessel
point for us is to translate sensor data from performance indicators performance analyses and simulation – and even ship design, the
to create insight for our customers to optimise their operations. future is exciting.