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The Industrial Revolution 4.0 has not left the transportation sector behind. All modes of transportation have, to some extent, already been affected, and maritime is the last to join them. Currently available technology makes autonomous merchant ships a possible alternative to conventional, manned vessels with seafarers. This upcoming shift requires the preparation of necessary policies, such as rethinking obsolete training curricula, in relation to a variety of aspects of the industry, including the future of seafaring as a profession. To formulate such policies, the views of professional seafarers and scholars are sometimes solicited, but the opinions of industry entrants are often neglected. However, the latter may also have some interesting views on the future of their profession, which may be relevant to policy-makers. The results of a worldwide survey, conducted using the Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing (CAWI) method, suggest that the future generation of seafarers fears automation less than their mentors. Although they expect their skills to be useful in automation-driven shipping, they also feel that their Maritime Education and Training institutions (MET) are not doing enough to prepare them for the challenges that the future may hold. This may be due to a lack or poor coverage of shipping autonomization issues in MET curricula, which was mentioned by as many as 41.9% of the respondents. This finding advocates for rethinking the curricula of METs and human resources management in the shipping industry of the future.
Knowledge of infection prevention among seafaring crews in cargo ships has seemed to be lacking. This can, at worst, pose a health risk to both the crew and other people as well. The purpose of this thesis was to develop an infection prevention guide in Finnish for cargo ship crews who travel short journeys. The objectives are to lessen infections and their spread on cargo ships by raising awareness among seafaring crew of infection prevention on cargo ships. This was done by making a guide for the crew so that they can use the guide to help them protect themselves and others from infections. The guide should also help to prevent the spread of infections. The guide is in Finnish. It is nine pages long and has basic information about different types of infections. The main part of the guide is about how infections spread and how they can be prevented in a cargo ship environment.
The aim of this thesis was to determine the obstacles to autonomous and remotely controlled ships operating in port areas in Ireland, in particular arrival and departure from ports. This was examined from the perspective of the ports regarding pilotage and control of traffic/interaction with other traffic. The secondary aim was to determine what measures ports may have to put in place to facilitate the operation of these vessels. Interviews were conducted with Harbour Masters, Marine Pilots and vessel traffic service operators. The interviewees were drawn from a mix of large commercial ports, fisheries harbours and leisure harbours including ports with and without vessel traffic services. The interviews were semi structured and open to allow participants to explore the potential difficulties and additional requirements port operators may have to facilitate this new technology. The interviews were then coded and analysed to extract the key findings. The study found that ports expect autonomous and remote-control vessels could safely operate in port areas subject to some safety concerns which would require addressing. It was found that a wide dissemination of information is required to build awareness among port users of these vessels and that specific identifying lights and shapes should be considered internationally. The area of most concern to the participants of this study was in relation to communications between the ports, pilots, conventional vessels and remote control/autonomous vessels. This concern was wide ranging and covered methodology, standardization and compatibility bandwidth availability for large data transfers. Another concern was latency in communications where urgent time sensitive decisions and security of communications were required to avoid confusion or malicious actions. These communication protocols were considered urgent as investments may be required in ports to facilitate operations.
This thesis explores the feasibility of implementing autonomous shipping and its potential business model in operating Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS). It provides a brief historical overview before analysing existing literature to identify possible application areas for MASS. In addition, a few Master Mariners who have transitioned to shore-based roles were interviewed to validate the findings and gauge interest in further exploration. The collected data was then subjected to a SWOT analysis to summarise the information. MASS offers potential in specific sectors. They provide increased efficiency, decreased expenses, and heightened safety, but regulatory issues, human factors, and liability concerns must be resolved. The importance of customer value within the operational model will continue to drive the need for functional change. The role of humans in seafaring trade will hinge on trade, legislation, and connectivity, but people will undoubtedly play a role.
The recently ended COVID-19 pandemic made the world to turn back to infectious diseases, their control and prevention. Almost all industries and spheres of daily living have been greatly affected, but tourism was one of the couple industries that suffered the most due to the closed borders and months’- long restrictions. As Finland is a maritime country with multiple ports, cruise ship travelling between the neighbouring countries is essential part of daily living for many. The aim of this project thesis was to create an evidence-based digital booklet about infection prevention on cruise ships for the crews working on board, so the risk of infectious disease outbreak would be minimized. The digital- booklet contains summarized information from different research papers about infection outbreaks on cruise ships and from guidelines provided by WHO, IMO, CDC and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
This thesis includes a quality assessment investigation of Automatic Identification System (AIS) data retrieved through the ARPA project data platform from Digitraffic. Automatic Identification System (AIS) data is essential in improving the global shipping industry's safety, efficiency, environmental performance, and operations. The dataset includes location, navigational, and static data from thousands of ships from the Baltic Sea geographical region. The research examines the literature on AIS data quality through which an assessment concept was constructed. This mixed-method approach combines qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques to identify the elements that influence the data's quality and develop strategies for measuring it. The investigation focuses on four critical aspects of data quality: accuracy, completeness, consistency, and timeliness. The findings show that AIS technology, communication protocols, ambient conditions, and human variables all impact the quality of marine AIS data. Therefore, to address these issues, the dissertation provides a set of quality indicators and data validation procedures. The effectiveness of the quality assessment procedures in identifying AIS data quality concerns was demonstrated. According to the study, ongoing monitoring and improvement of AIS data quality are still required to improve marine safety and decision-making, ultimately making it ideal for autonomous shipping where the data is needed with a high degree of integrity.
Traditionally, the evaluation of global loads experienced by passenger ships has been based on closed-form Classification Society Rule formulae or quasi direct analysis procedures. These approaches do not account for the combined influence of hull flexibility, slenderness, and environmental actions on global dynamic response. This paper presents a procedure for the prediction of the global wave-induced loads of a medium-size passenger ship using a potential flow Flexible Fluid Structure Interaction (FFSI) model. The study compares results from direct long-term hydro-structural computations against Classification Society Rules. It is demonstrated that for the specific vessel under consideration: (a) the elastic contributions of the responses on loads are negligible as springing effects occur outside of the wave energy spectrum, (b) deviations of the order of 28% arise by way of amidships when comparing direct hydrodynamic analysis predictions encompassing IACS UR S11A hog/sag nonlinear correction factors and the longitudinal strength standard, and (c) the interpretation of the wave scatter diagram influences predictions by approximately 20%. Based on these indications, it is recommended that further parametric studies over a range of passenger ship designs could help draw unified conclusions on the total influence of global and local hydrodynamic actions on passenger ship loads and dynamic response.
The aim was to describe the process of joining a cruise ship and starting to act as a safety officer for the first time during authors career. The Author had years of previous sea going experience as an 2nd and 3rd Officer on passenger vessels. Basic information about cruise ship hierarchy was studied together with ship’s particulars. Cruise Ship Astoria Grande (ex. AIDA Cara) was built in Turku in 1996 and was bought by a Russian company in late 2021 from Costa cruises German subsidiary AIDA cruises. The new owners were new to cruising business, so all the safety management onboard had to be built from scratch. The journey took us from joining the ship and getting familiarized until implementing a fresh safety system onboard and monitoring it. Safety system was based on codes, laws and guidelines in force during that time. The safety officer should familiarize himself with company policies, instructions and procedures relevant to his position and he acts as a Staff Captain’s deputy, hence there were details describing that position. The study can be used as guide for students or ship personnel, when they are making choices of their career path.
This thesis work aimed to determine the methanol feasibility as a retrofit solution to meet decarbonization demands targeting the four-stroke main engine powered vessels and more specifically, the ferry and cruise segment. Feasibility areas related to methanol retrofit are described and discussed. Feasibility areas are looked at from available literature point of view. Furthermore, continuously developing regulation impact on the general feasibility of methanol as an alternative fuel was discussed. Feasibility areas are related to technical, commercial, safety and compliancy factors. Methanol properties as fuel is as well described and several types of methanol global availability are evaluated. A questionnaire was used to evaluate customer´s and supplier’s (Wärtsilä) standpoint on methanol retrofit. The questionnaire was identical for both supplier and customer representatives. The questionnaire questions covered the feasibility areas. Finally, the questions were analyzed by using the all the responses but also evaluated by using customer and supplier categorization. Also, professional groups were used to analyze the results. Additionally, product values are described from the product and customer value perspective (PVP & CVP). The example value proposition is formulated into the methanol conversion. Co-creation of values related to the value proposition is as well discussed. A value system product model is explained and integrated into the example value proposition.
Despite the concept of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) being in the limelight of research and development effort within the shipping industry, there are still some existing research gaps. These pertain not only to technical solutions to be implemented but also to the issue of the impact of new technology on maritime safety. In an attempt to identify these gaps, we perform a literature review of the operational features of remotely-controlled merchant vessels. The framework is based on a safety control structure developed in accordance with the principles of System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA). The results indicate that most scholars focus on the high-end components of the system, while some organizational and human-oriented issues remain under-explored. These results can be found relevant by scholars and industry partners active in the domain of autonomous shipping.
The capability of an icegoing ship to break out from an ice channel is a main index of its manoeuvrability in ice. Breakout is necessary if a ship needs to change its course when sailing in an ice channel. Breakout can also be used as an evasive action to avoid collision with the leading ship in emergencies during escort and convoy. Although the ice channel breakout test is documented in ITTC guidelines as a standard manoeuvring test, little data is available on the performance of icegoing ships in this context. This paper presents model-scale tests carried out at Aalto Ice Tank with a double-acting vessel with podded propulsion. Parameters including ice thickness and strength, ice channel width, initial speed and propulsive settings are varied between the tests to examine their influence on the capability and distance to break out from ice channels. In addition, stopping tests by reversing propeller revolution were conducted in ice channels to benchmark the breakout operation as an option to avoid collision. The test results reveal the influence of multiple factors on the ship's channel-breakout capability, including channel width, shaft power, initial speed, as well as thickness and strength of ice. With additional complementary numerical simulations at high speeds, it is found that for collision avoidance braking is more efficient at low speed and breakout at high speed. Recommendations on breakout test in model scale are given based on the lessons and experience learnt from the experiments.
This study focuses on local ice-breaking tourism initiatives in Kemi (Finland), Mombetsu (Japan), and Abashiri (Japan). It adds to research on winter and cruise tourism and analyzes multiscalar challenges—ranging from the global warming and COVID-19 pandemic to dependency on local governmental support—threatening the future of tourism dependent on frozen maritime conditions and vulnerable to changing climate conditions. As the case study cities have invested significantly in tourism built around the uncontrollable natural phenomenon, changes in this industry can lead to substantial spillover effects in the surrounding communities. This qualitative comparative research is based on extensive fieldwork and utilizes the concept of resilience to discuss the means of responding to existing and predicted disturbances. The results of this study show that the recent adaptation and resiliency-building strategies have focused on searching for alternative use of old, new, and renovated ice-breaking vessels, attraction of new types of (often domestic) visitors, and development of activities and facilities that are less sensitive to seasonal variation and climate change. While introducing new local ideas concerning ecological and educational tourism, e-tourism, and community-oriented tourism, this article contributes to the understanding of resilience-building processes in tourism.
Commercial shipping contributes to climate change, and sustainable development has only recently become a well-known and influential megatrend. Shipping companies are facing the need to reduce amount of pollution and carbon emissions in order to match IMO and EU targets, especially in the sensitive region of the Baltic Sea. In this work, sustainability documents published by companies were analyzed, compared with each other and with an interview with an expert from Baltic Sea Action Group, and common trends and issues of sustainable development were outlined: future zero-emission fuels (green hydrogen, green ammonia, green methanol) require empirical data, green electricity, up-to-date legislation, suitable storage infrastructure and an industry-wide transformation. Until then, companies implement “transition stage” solutions like LNG, biodiesel, dual fuel engines and energy efficiency measures. In general, shipping companies have the financial resources for sustainable development, but coordination on different levels throughout the industry, testing of new technologies, the current state of green fuel market and the global scale of shipping (with its many economic and political factors that are often out of the companies’ area of direct involvement) are areas of issue.
The subject matter of this thesis work focuses on the characteristics and value of tugboat training experience, and the impact of tug training experience on deck cadets and officers’ performances during towage operations. It was inspired by the fact that deck officers are contributing parties in towage operations and the part they play during these tug mishaps and accidents. Evidently, not much study has been finalized to determine all the factors behind this. However, several reports and findings point out the roles played by the bridge team and other non-tug operators during the accidents. The thesis includes information specifically regarding the different range and purposes of the tug training experience and an examination of these differences. Also discussed is the correlation between the direct and indirect impact of situational awareness, and the presence of lack of tug operational knowledge being linked to the lack of situational awareness. Other areas covered were the opinions and suggestions of tugboat crews. The opinions were based on the group the questionnaire targeted and the interviews with tugboat crew.
The transition towards digitalization and automation of processes and operations to enhance efficiency, increase competitiveness, and spur industries towards the decarbonization path of net-zero emissions have initiated the emergence of the Maritime Autonomous Surface Ship (MASS) in shipping operations. The rapid pace of digital transformation and technological advancement requires training and re-training of seafarers for adaptability. A Series of research and regulatory discussions are ongoing to accommodate this changing phase of the application of digital technologies in maritime operations. This research aims to explore and identify potential competency requirements and necessary learning and training for seafarers to stay updated in the changing norm. A qualitative approach combined with desk reviews was adopted to develop a proposed competency framework, including technical and non-technical skills (soft skills) that are considered vital for MASS operations. The competency matrix summarily presented in (Figure 10), in (Chapter 5.1), could be adopted for formulating and developing training and learning for seafarers in MASS operations.
The objective of the thesis was to describe the voyage planning process and factors that influence it to see how the process could be adapted for being performed shoreside. The thesis is a qualitative study written from the voyage planning officer’s point of view concentrating on the appraisal and planning stages. Regulatory framework was defined using IMO and British Admiralty publications. Carnival Corporation’s SMS policies and Holland America Line’s voyage planning routines were used as examples of the process. As there is not much research available on voyage planning and new developing technologies, interviews and internet sources were used. The amount of work put into a voyage plan varies greatly depending on a ship type and trade area, but generally it is a time-consuming process, partly because the information needs to be gathered from multiple sources and is not always easily available. The concept of e-navigation is aimed to improve connectivity between different systems and stakeholders allowing new types of services and information dissemination across the industry enabling the navigators to receive relevant information in time and often automatically with no need to request the information separately. Also automated ship-to-ship information exchange will become possible. AI-aided planning software and government provided passage plans can be of assistance in the voyage planning officer’s work, but their scope is still quite limited. In the future when the technology develops, and especially if all information can be accessed from a single window, time spent on appraisal and planning stages will decrease considerably and most of the process could be done shoreside leaving the officers on board more time for other tasks. Autonomous vessels and augmented reality are the future, and as the technology develops shore-based voyage planning will become more common.
Tämä opinnäytetyö perehtyy teknisiin riskeihin ja lainopillisiin ongelmiin, jotka liittyvät miehittämättömien alusten käyttöönottoon. Tarkoituksena oli selvittää millaista teknologiaa tullaan käyttämään ja mitä riskejä niihin sisältyy, sekä minkälaisia lainopillisia ongelmia on ratkaistava ennen kuin miehittämätön operointi on mahdollista. Työtä varten haastattelimme asiantuntijoita, jotka toimivat miehittämättömien alusten kehitysprojekteissa. Tutkimusmateriaaleihimme kuuluivat uutisartikkelit, tieteelliset artikkelit, esitykset sekä rajoitetusti saatavilla olevaa materiaalia haastatelluilta. Tulimme johtopäätökseen, että tekniset laitteet tulevat tarvitsemaan paljon testausta, jotta niiden rajoitukset ja riskit tunnetaan riittävän hyvin, ja jotta ne voidaan korjata tai minimoida. Käytettävän teknologian tulee olla luotettavaa ja parasta laatua. Lainopillisella puolella saimme selville, että useita ongelmia kohdataan, mutta niiden kanssa on aluksi mahdollista tulla toimeen, ja myöhemmin luoda täysin uusia kokonaisuuksia asetuksista ja määräyksistä koskien miehittämättömiä aluksia. Lainopillisten ongelmien takia operointi on aloitettava kotimaanliikenteessä, mutta kotimaisilla kokemuksilla on mahdollista aloittaa laatimaan kansainvälisiä määräyksiä, jotka myöhemmin mahdollistavat maailmanlaajuisen operoinnin aloittamisen.
This paper focused on combining ships stability calculations with deep reinforcement learning methods. For the sake of this thesis the author developed a proof of concept software that not only enables users to solve tasks from the field of vessel stability in manual mode but also allows the use of Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm, which utilizes Python 3.11 programming language along with the Stable Baselines 3 package. Deep reinforcement learning, which is an optimization problem framework for learning from experience that leads to refining a policy to maximize a future reward, was discussed in further detail. Moreover, attention was paid to a detailed explanation of the whole development process, neural networks architectures and hyperparameters defying PPO algorithm used in this project. In the final chapters, the author presents the utility of the software in manual mode based on a few example tasks as well as the results achieved by the trained neural network which achieved an efficiency of 42 percent. Final conclusions were presented which emphasized the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing machine learning in the field of stability calculation. Finally, the potential for further development of this kind of software and autonomous maritime industry in general in the future was discussed.
Uutta teknologiaa kehitetään ja implementoidaan merenkulkuun. Tavoitteena on, että tulevaisuudessa käytössä on itseohjautuvia (autonomous) aluksia. Tämä vaikuttaa moneen eri asiaan, lainsäädäntöön, ihmisten käyttäytymiseen sekä koulutukseen. Lopputyössäni “Autonomous Shipping is changing the structures”, arvioin miten uudistus vaikuttaa alan koulutukseen. Tutkimustyö edistää Liikenne- ja viestintäministeriön (TRAFICOM) ja Aboa Maren (NOVIA) jo käynnissä olevaa työtä. Tutkimukseni tutkii miten jatkossa voimme kehittää itseohjautuvien alusten vaikutusta merenkulkualan koulutukseen ja sen rakenteisiin. Tutkimukseni analysoi tutkimusta neljällä alueella: 1) Lainsäädäntöä ja sääntelyä, 2) Kauko-ohjattavuutta, 3) Ihmistekijöitä ja 4) Koulutusta. Tutkijat ovat todenneet, että tarvitaan muutoksia tai sovittamista, kun itseohjaavien laivojen operoiminen aloitetaan. Empiiristä osaa varten haastattelin kuuttatoista alan, viranomaisten ja koulutuslaitoksen henkilöä. Tulokset osoittavat, että tutkimus ja haastatteluiden anti tukevat toisiaan. On olemassa monta ratkaisematonta asiaa, ei pelkästään teknisiä asioita. IT-osaamisen lisääntyvä tarve tuotiin useassa yhteydessä esiin. Kansainvälinen säännöstö, STCW ohjaa pitkälti sertifioitua koulutusta ja siksi koulutuksen vaihtoehtoisia ratkaisuja on kehitettävä.
The main objective of this portfolio is to supply clear and reasonably practicable information about general cargo ships, cargo operations, as well as special project cargo and to look into the advantages of having a tween deck. For Study purposes I am using pictures and documentations from the general cargo ship M/V Baltic Amelie and a few pictures from the Bulk cargo ship M/V Nathalie. Both ships operate under the Finish flag and trades between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. All pictures were taken by me during my time onboard while working with RABN on both of those ships. Therefore, this whole portfolio is based on my personal experience as well as on conversations and interviews with more experienced colleagues within the company. The idea of this research is to give specific understanding about General cargo ships. Not only the cargo operations itself, such as loading and discharging, but also to increase the knowledge of stowage plans and the process of preparing the cargo hold before loading. Furthermore, I will investigate special project cargo and how it differs from the normal cargo that the ship transports. One part of this research focuses on the tween deck and the advantage of having one on a general Cargo Ship.
This paper contains thoughts and research results on the possibility of autonomous and remotely controlled ships in the polar region. Two, not so-widely known subjects were taken into consideration and the idea of this research was to see if both can coexist in a very harsh and hard environment like the Arctic and Antarctica. A SWOT and PESTLE analysis was performed on the subject. The idea was to understand the rules of ice navigation and try to explain to the reader how this knowledge is comprehended by the human operator. Today we have newly developed technologies. These technologies explained in the text below will speed up the process of remotely operated vessels. The research was done by reading literature and articles on the subjects. Another side of the research was my personal experience of 7 years sailing on the ice. Different countries and organizations already tried to research the problem, but none looked at it from an ice navigator's standpoint. After the research was completed, the conclusion was that the concept of remotely operated vessels in the Arctic might be feasible, even though we would have to work through the labyrinth of maritime rules and regulations along with developing trustworthy technology. Perhaps, an even more demanding part will be convincing people and building public trust for this new technology that still needs to be developed in many ways. A timeline for something like this, a new concept in a very unfamiliar area, is hard to set because factors such as economic growth, geopolitics, and technological advancement will be major factors in the development of autonomous and remotely controlled operations in the polar region.
The topic of this thesis was to develop GreenShip project’s Maritime Emission Manager training programme. The goal of the GreenShip project is to develop an Emissions Management job specification and a training programme for it specifically for the shipping industry. In this thesis, quiz questions were created for each chapter and one essay assignment for each main chapter from Emission Manager training material.
The advent of autonomous ships that are unmanned or low-manned will reduce the number of people at risk at sea. Even when autonomous navigation does not reduce the number of accidents, this means that safety at sea will increase. In fact, increased safety is one of the primary perceived drivers for autonomous shipping, although this safety increase has not yet been quantified in academic literature. In this article a statistical analysis is performed to determine the distribution of human casualties and lost ships over accident types, ship types and ship sizes. Subsequently, based on several scenarios for the implementation of autonomous ships, a quantification of the estimated reduction in loss of life and loss of ships is provided. It is concluded that the implementation of autonomy on small cargo ships with a length below 120 m will have the largest safety benefit, since these ships account for the majority recorded ship losses and lives lost.
As the initiatives to develop and implement autonomous merchant vessels into the global shipping industry are gaining momentum, their safety remains in the spotlight. It is argued that every effort shall be taken to ensure that the safety of maritime transportation is not reduced in the process, but the question of how to achieve it remains open. Meanwhile, the systemic approach is more widely being used to analyse innovative systems’ safety. We therefore apply a System-Theoretic Process Analysis to develop a model suitable for safety analysis and design recommendations’ elaboration for future autonomous vessels. Furthermore, we introduce a method of evaluating and communicating uncertainties pertaining to the method. The results indicate that the system-theoretic safety analysis’ outcome can be affected by manageable uncertainties despite the fact that the system in question is yet to be implemented.
This thesis is a guideline to deck officers and masters on how to use different types of anchor methods in maneuvering. It has shown that there is a lack of knowledge about this important topic. When there is no tug boat assistance or bow thrusters it has proven to be vital knowledge to berth the vessel safely. It starts with the theoretical background of how the anchor and its machinery work. Different types of anchors, maneuvers, approaches, planning, and procedures to follow before anchoring. Many types of anchoring methods are explained with drawings to use according to the situation. Three interviews were made with current masters and pilots. They share their experience of how they used anchors during the mooring. Theoretical and practical knowledge should give extra options next time when using an anchor is the only choice.
The fact that cargo ships are involved in the transportation of almost all commodities sold worldwide is well documented. These cargo ships need the services of healthy and skilled seafarers for their maintenance, operations, and repair. The seafarers are confronted with a lot of health challenges as dictated by the nature of their job as they voyage across different parts of the world and the ship’s limited space and cramped environment have made them highly susceptible to contract and spread infectious diseases. Evidence has shown that enough research has not been done to acquaint and familiarise the seafarers with information regarding the infection prevention measures. This is a project-based thesis which has a product in the form of a handbook as its scope. The purpose of this thesis was to prepare electronic handbook in English that contains guidelines for the prevention of infections among seafarers who work in cargo ships. The objective was premised on improving the infection prevention knowledge of cargo ship seafarers all over the world. It is believed that this will help to considerably reduce the morbidity and mortality of infectious diseases among the seafarers and mitigate the spread of these diseases by them. This project has enabled the authors to deepen their intellectual acumen, broaden their knowledge of the topic and sharpen their re-search skills to provide a worthwhile, informative, and incisive product. The product is an electronic handbook which was created using Adobe InDesign and FlipHTML5. It is a 48-page handbook that is divided into eight chapters. It contains twenty-one infections commonly faced by the seafarers. Each of the infections was concisely addressed under six headings namely key facts, mode of transmission, incidence, health implications, symptoms, and prevention. Prevention is further discussed under three sub-headings – primary, secondary, and tertiary. Scrum agile project methodology was used for the implementation of the project as it was carried out in five phases namely initiation, planning and estimation, implementation, reviewing and releasing. The method was adopted due to its ability to accommodate modifications. It is imperative to assert that the information provided in this thesis was extracted from credible and reliable sources in accordance with SAMK guidelines. Ethical principles were strictly adhered to according to SAMK and TENK guidelines.
In this thesis, a ship simulator capable of training agents in ship behavior is presented. The simulator can be used to train and simulate agents with different kinds of behaviors. The simulator supports ships and boats of different sizes. Users can input configuration files with agent and environment data to create their own scenarios. The agent data includes ship information such as the position, speed and heading of the vessel as well as the weights of the training data which define the behavior of the agent. The environment data allows the user add a map or obstacles as well as decide the size of the area the agents move on. The simulator is capable of training and simulating multiple agents simultaneously. The simulators time is divided into one second long time steps. The application does not work in parallel but instead handles all calculations between each time step. With various configuration options the simulator can be used to simulate a plethora of scenarios. New reinforcement learning methods and ship configurations can also easily be added. The simulator can be used in educational and industrial applications in reinforcement learning or autonomous surface vehicle navigation. The simulation is shown by a simple top down view. All the objects are two-dimensional polygons and therefore, the ships motions are composed of 3 degreesof-freedom: surge, yaw and sway.
The objective of this thesis was to develop the installation of the galley furniture tabletop equipment of a cruise ship and compare the offboard and onboard installation. The rules and rule makers of the cruise ship industry are researched as well as the ergonomic side of the installation. The thesis was commissioned by Seaking Oy. The functional part of the thesis was done in Papenburg, Germany for the Seaking GmbH and the theory part in Finland. The theory part deals with the rules and the rule makers of the industry. The information of the theory part was used in the functional part of the installation. The functional part researched the installation and different installation ways. The research methods used in the thesis were interviews and literature related to this research. The result of the thesis was the comparison between the offboard and onboard installation. In the research good and bad was found from both installation methods. The conclusion of the research was that the offboard installation of tabletop equipment could be a solution in the future.
This paper introduced a new ship domain concept and an analytical framework. The ship domain takes the point of the ship’s first evasive maneuver as a basis and correlates it with the navigator-perceived collision risk level. The first evasive maneuver of a ship is detected based on the ship turning point identification and ship intention estimation. The available maneuvering margin (AMM) is utilized as a proxy to measure the perceived collision risk by the navigator. Interpreting the first evasive maneuver in terms of this AMM over a large sample of vessel encounters taken from automatic identification system (AIS) data finally enables an empirical estimation of the size of this ship domain. The method is applied to AIS data in the Northern Baltic Sea, and separate ship domains are constructed for the give-way and stand-on vessels with different maneuverability characteristics. Compared to the existing proximity-based ship domain, this ship domain explicitly incorporates the dynamic nature of the encounter process and the navigator’s evasive maneuvers. Several advantages of this proposed ship domain concept and limitations of the presented modeling approach are discussed. Finally, possible future applications are explained, including waterway safety assessment and navigational decision support systems to reduce ship-ship collision risk.
Sea ice loads on marine structures are caused by the failure process of ice against the structure. The failure process is affected by both the structure and the ice, thus is called ice–structure interaction. Many ice failure processes, including ice failure against inclined or vertical offshore structures, are composed of large numbers of discrete failure events which lead to the formation of piles of ice blocks. Such failure processes have been successfully studied by using the discrete element method (DEM). In addition, ice appears in nature often as discrete floes; either as single floes, ice floe fields or as parts of ridges. DEM has also been successfully applied to study the formation and deformation of these ice features, and the interactions of ships and structures with them. This paper gives a review of the use of DEM in studying ice–structure interaction, with emphasis on the lessons learned about the behaviour of sea ice as a discontinuous medium.
Tavoitteena oli antaa ohjeita, kuinka laiva kiinnitetään oikein merellä toiseen alukseen. Opinnäytetyössä selvitettiin syitä, miksi alusten välisiä toiminta operaatioita tarvitaan. Opinnäytetyössä käsiteltiin kaikki kiinnityksen eri vaiheet - laivan valmistelu STS-kiinnitykseen, erityyppiset kiinnitysköydet ja lokasuojat, hyväksyttävät ja ei-hyväksyttävät sääolosuhteet, hyvät alueet alusten välisiä toimintoja varten, lähestyminen toiseen alukseen ja varsinainen kiinnitys. Opinnäytetyö sisälsi paljon kuvia ja videoita antaakseen lukijalle käytännöllistä ja visuaalista tietoa. Kaksi kolmesta videosta oli asennettu vain äänellä ja yksi video oli asennettu äänellä ja tekstityksellä tilanteen ymmärtämiseksi paremmin. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa käytettiin haastatteluja, omakokemuksia ja teknisiä tietoja puskureista ja kiinnitysköysistä. Haastateltavat olivat varsinainen päällikkö, yliperämies ja perämies
This study examines the relations ships between the perceived service quality and satisfaction on on-board spending and behavioral action, while it also explores differences in on-board spending. Survey data were collected from 649 cruise ship passengers. A partial least square structural equation modeling was used to test the conceptual model and analysis of variances to explore the influence of passengers' demographic characteristics. Results show a positive link between service quality and satisfaction, and satisfaction and behavioral actions. Spending behavior has a moderating effect on behavioral actions, and is influenced by gender and travel frequency. Investing in the quality of cruise ships is vital, as it influences satisfaction and positive word-of-mouth. How to increase on-board spending, is more complex. On the one hand, the findings show that increased customer satisfaction does not habitually mean increased revenue. On the other hand, the results imply that passengers' on-board spending varies across customer segments.
During escort and convoy operations, an icebreaker opens a channel while the escorted or convoyed ships follow the path along the channel. If the assisted ship is wider than the channel which the icebreaker creates, the created channel cannot fit the assisted ship. Thus, the assisted ship has to break some ice by itself. This is herein referred to as navigation in ‘narrow ice channel’. The performance of ships in narrow ice channel is investigated here. For this aim, model-scale test of a ship going through ice channels with different widths and ice thicknesses is firstly conducted. After that, numerical simulation of the model test scenarios is implemented with an in-house simulation program dedicated for ship operation in ice. The simulation correctly captured the main features of ship resistance change as a function of channel width, which indicates its validity as a simulation tool. Subsequentially, numerical simulations are implemented with several other ships in order to gain general insights into performance of ships in narrow ice channel. Focus is given to the influence of channel width on ships' encountered resistance and attainable speed in ice. The general findings through these simulations are useful for decision making tools.
SOLAS2020 damage stability regulations are based on probabilistic damage distributions. Those originate from the pooled analysis of collision accidents across a fleet with bias towards cargo ships. This paper introduces a method that accounts for collision-based crashworthiness on ship damage distributions. The method reshapes statistical SOLAS damage distributions for a given ship or structural details for a reference ship section and her reinforced version. Damage reductions may differ depending on ship characteristics and operational scenarios. To mitigate this, a high number of collision scenarios was simulated using the super-element method. It is shown that risk control in terms of damage reduction over the whole range of damages is possible by adding a double hull or by deck reinforcement. Damage reduction is quantified by damage stability analysis of a cruise vessel. It is concluded that installing a double hull on ship vulnerable zones leads to increased A-index.
Tutkimuksessa on arvioitu aaltojen aiheuttamaa springing-herätettä mallikokeiden tulosten perusteella. Mallikokeissa on keulan alueelta mitattu paine useista pisteistä samanaikaisesti suurella taajuudella. Mallikoemittauksissa on ajettu mallia epäsäännöllisessä aallokossa eri aallonkorkeuden ja kohtaamiskulman yhdistelmillä. Springing-herätevoimaa ei olla aikaisemmin arvioitu mittaamalla suoraan paine useista pisteistä mallin kyljellä. Tutkimuksessa arvioidaan herätteen suuruutta, vaikutuskohtaa sekä herätteen luonnetta. Mitatuista painesignaaleista on interpoloitu paine rungon pinnalle paineantureiden välille. Paine on integroitu kaaren pinnan yli viivakuormaksi. Viivakuorman tarkastelu on suoritettu taajuustasossa. Herätevoimaa on tarkasteltu tietyllä taajuusalueella, josta on eliminoitu ensimmäisen kertaluokan kuormitus. Mallin ja aallokon kohtaamiskulmalla todettiin olevan vaikutusta herätevoiman suuruuteen aalloille altistuneen kyljen puolella. Sivuvastaisessa aallokossa herätevoimat olivat suurempia kuin vasta-aallokossa. Suurimmat herätevoimat vaikuttivat konstruktiovesiviivan olkapään etupuolella. Kaarikulmalla todettiin olevan myös vaikutusta voimien suuruuteen. Tämän tutkimuksen perusteella loivempi kaarikulma konstruktiovesiviivan korkeudella aiheuttaisi suuremman herätteen. Herätevoiman todettiin koostuvan jaksoittain toistuvista pienistä iskumaisista kuormista, jotka vaikuttavat konstruktiovesiviivan läheisyydessä. Todettiin tarvetta säännöllisen aallokon kokeille eri runkomuodoilla, jotka mahdollistaisivat tarkemman arvion kaarikulman vaikutuksesta herätevoimaan. Iskumaisten kuormien mallien vertailu säännöllisen aallokon mittauksiin voisi myös auttaa ymmärtämään ilmiötä paremmin.
This paper presents a direct time-domain method for the prediction of symmetric hydroelastic responses of ships progressing with forward speed in small amplitude waves. A transient time-domain free surface Green function is used for the idealisation of the seakeeping problem using an Earth fixed coordinate system. Free surface ship hydrodynamics are idealised in the time domain by a Green function, and forward speed effects are idealised by a space-state model. Modal actions are accounted for by Timoshenko beam structural dynamics. Flexible fluid structure interaction (FFSI) coupling is enabled by a body boundary condition, and a direct integration Newmark-β scheme is used to obtain symmetric dynamic responses. The method is validated against available published numerical and experimental results. A parametric study for different container ship hull forms confirms that (i) forward speed effects should be taken under consideration as far as practically possible and (ii) hull flexibility effects accounting for hull shear deformation and rotary inertia are more notable for slender hull forms.
Short sea shipping is an important part of the European economy and an alternative to road transport of goods in Europe. It represents an intermodal transport combination of sea and land on a Door-to-Door basis, and it aims to develop more sustainable transport network with the least negative impacts by the transport modes. This Master’s thesis addresses the development of short sea shipping transportation chains at Helsinki-Tallinn route. The Master´s thesis explores the development of short sea shipping at Helsinki-Tallinn route by analyzing the shipping costs per unit transported by different ship types and sizes between port of Helsinki-Vuosaari harbour and port of Tallinn-Muuga harbour, and examining the possibility of Ro-Ro traffic as well. The study is qualitative-quantitative method and it is based on a case study, data is collected from secondary and primary sources, and mixed methods analysis is used to implement the interviews and observations results with the databases analysis. In the thesis factors affecting on short sea shipping are explored and analyzed, also the possibility of Ro-Ro shipping is examined, by comparing the shipping cost and the environmental impact of different ships like container ships, Ropax, and CONRO ships. The finding of this research shows the importance of time at port and utilization as a shipping cost determinants, the relationship between ship type and costing, and the possibility of Ro-Ro shipping.
Purpose of this thesis is to clarify why and how many near miss situations happens between pleasure vessels and large merchant vessels at Finnish territorial waters. Research questions of this thesis are which situations pleasure boat captains feel most difficult at meeting situation with large vessel? What creates these situations? References and material used in this thesis are internet sources, laws and regulations, answers I got from Finnish authorities when contacting with them and own experience from seafaring. In theoretical part I go through legislations, rules and accident reports. The research method of this thesis is quantitative. Material of the research is collected by using an internet-based questionnaire. Inquiry contained nine mandatory questions and one voluntary open question. 61 people answered to the inquiry. Research shows that near miss situations between pleasure boats and large merchant ships happens more than is reported. Over half (52.4%) have been or seen near miss situation with large vessel. The inquiry tells us that most difficult in meeting situation with large vessel is to perceive the area that large vessel needs on fairway. Research also shows that pleasure boat captains recognize well the situations which are or can develop to a near miss situation
The prototypes of unmanned merchant vessels are expected to come into service within the coming years. The main line of argument supporting their introduction pertains to the increase in navigational safety, which is expected to be achieved by reducing the frequency of human-related accidents on board ships, by removing the crews. On the other hand, the response of unmanned ship to potential accidents is still uncertain. With enthusiasm on one side and apprehension on the other, the literature lacks an objective study on the effect of unmanned ships on safety of maritime transportation. This paper constitutes an attempt to bridge the aforementioned gap by applying a framework based on what-if analysis to a hundred maritime accident reports. The aim of the analysis is to assess whether the accident would have happened if the ship had been unmanned, and once the accident had happened - would its consequences have been different. The results obtained reveal that the occurrence of navigational accidents (e.g. collision, grounding) can be expected to decrease with the development of unmanned ship. However the extent of consequences resulting particularly from non-navigational accidents (e.g. fire, ship loss due to structural failure) can be expected to be much larger for the unmanned ships when compared to the conventional ones.
The Collision Avoidance (CA) system constitutes a key enabling technology for the Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS), the appropriate functionality of which is critical for assuring the navigation safety. Although several techniques including testing of the collision scenarios in a virtual environment can be employed, the trust of testing phase results depends on the number of tested scenarios and their coverage. This study aims at proposing a systematic and automatic process for the generation of the traffic scenarios that can be employed for the CA system testing. First, the range of the investigated parameters is defined, and samples of potential traffic parameters are generated using Sobol sequences. Subsequently, hazardous traffic scenarios are identified from the initially generated scenarios by using predefined rules. For these hazardous scenarios, a risk vector considering weather conditions and traffic conditions is calculated. A clustering algorithm is employed to identify the groups of traffic conditions that can be encountered based on each scenario risk vector and COLREGs traffic scenarios. For each of these groups, the riskiest scenario is provided as input for the test cases development, thus, simplifying the selection process of testing scenarios. The process is applied to a theoretical Short Sea Shipping autonomous vessel, whereas the derived results are employed to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the developed process.
This paper reviews the importance of uncertainties in hull girder loads influenced by flexible fluid structure interactions. The focus is on developments in the field of hydroelastic modelling, simulation and model tests of practical relevance to the prediction hull girder wave load predictions and their validation. It is concluded that whereas hydroelastic methods for use in design development and assessment become increasingly useful, challenges in realizing and modelling uncertainties can be attributed to: (1) the limitations of numerical methods to suitably model nonlinearities; (2) the ambiguity of model tests; and (3) the systematic use of data emerging from computational, model- or full-scale methods. An approach is recommended to assess the uncertainty in the hydroelastic responses to wave loading and an example is provided to demonstrate the application of the procedure.
The autonomous ships’ introduction is associated with a number of challenges including the lack of appropriate risk acceptance criteria to support the risk assessment process during the initial design phases. This study aims to develop a rational methodology for selecting appropriate risk matrix ratings, which are required to perform the risk assessment of autonomous and conventional ships at an early design stage. This methodology consists of four phases and employs the individual and societal risk acceptance criteria to determine the risk matrix ratings for the groups of people exposed to risks. During the first and second phase, the required input parameters for the risk matrix ratings based on the individual risk and societal risk are calculated, respectively. During the third phase, the risk matrix ratings are defined using input from the first and second phases. During the fourth phase, the equivalence between the different types of consequences is specified. The methodology is applied for the case study of a crewless inland waterways ship to assess her typical operation within north-European mainland. The results demonstrate that the inclusion of societal risk resulted in more stringent risk matrix ratings compared to the ones employed in previous studies. Moreover, the adequacy of the proposed methodology and its effectiveness to provide risk acceptance criteria aligned with societal and individual risk acceptance criteria as well as its applicability to conventional ships are discussed.
Osallistuttuani jäänmurtajan luokittamisprosessiin painolastivesisertifikaatin saamiseksi, tutustuin painolastiveden käsittelyn vaatimuksiin ja sen toimeenpanemiseen liittyviin säännöksiin ja lakeihin. Painolastiveden käsittelyn tavoite on yksinkertainen: estää haitallisten vesieliöiden ja taudinaiheuttajien kulkeutuminen aluksen painolastiveden mukana alueilta toisille. Tähän yksinkertaisuus asiassa kuitenkin loppuu ja painolastivesiyleissopimuksen toteuttamiseen ja painolastinkäsittelylaitteiden jälkiasennuksiin vanhoihin aluksiin liittyy paljon kysymyksiä ja tulkintaa vaativia asioita, jotka vaativat selvitystyötä. Painolastiveden käsittelyyn liittyy paljon säännöksiä ja siihen perehtyminen vaatii asiaan paneutumista. Jotkut asiat vaativat virkamiesten ja lippuviranomaisen hyväksyntää ja tulkintaa. Huomasin, että Arctia Icebreaking Oy:ssä oli paljon epäselvyyttä liittyen painolastiveden käsittelyyn ja tarjouduin tekemään tutkimuksen Arctian jäänmurtajia koskevien painolastiveden käsittelyyn liittyvien vaatimusten ja hyödyllisten mahdollisuuksien selvittämiseksi. Tämän tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on selvittää kannattavat mahdollisuudet painolastivesiyleissopimuksen ja siihen liittyvien kansallisten lakien vaatimusten täyttämiseksi alusten operointilaajuudessa. Toinen tavoite tutkimuksella on tehdä kattava tietopaketti aiheesta ja sen taustoista varustamon johdolle ja alusten operoivalle miehistölle. Tämän tutkimuksen tulos helpottaa varustamon johdon päätöksentekoa painolastinkäsittelyyn liittyen ja toimii yleisenä tietolähteenä aiheesta jäänmurtajien miehistöille.
Ships operating in ice might be exposed to significant ice loading. Using a probabilistic semi-empirical method known as the event-maximum method, the long-term maximum level of ice loading on a ship can be estimated based on parent distributions of short-term full-scale ice load measurements. The event-maximum method is used to model the relationship between extreme local ice pressures and impact area by estimating parameters corresponding to the inverse slope (α) and intercept (x0) for the line of best fit for the tail of ranked peak pressure data versus the natural logarithm of the Weibull plotting position. These best-fit lines are assumed to follow an exponential distribution and associated α and x0 values are produced for different local design areas. This allows for the determination of α-area curves, which reflects the relationship between ice pressure and the local design area. Previous studies have determined α-area curves for different geographical areas such as the Beaufort Sea and South Bering Sea, representing different ice types including both first-year and multi-year ice. In this study, two separate sets of full-scale ice load measurements having been considered, namely measurements from the Kara Sea and the Barents Sea, as well as measurements from the Antarctic Ocean. Using these two datasets, two new α-area curves have been generated that represent among other operating areas (the Kara Sea and the Barents Sea), operating modes (icebreaker assisted operation) and impact areas (aft shoulder) not covered by other curves. Earlier formulations of the event-maximum method are based on local design areas in which the width and height of areas are defined by the size of instrumented rectangular panel areas (or combinations of those areas) on the bow of the vessel from which the data were collected. In that approach, ice thickness is not directly considered since the height of individual panels is based on the dimensions of instrumented areas and moreover, detailed ice thickness records were not available for those data sets. In the present study, an alternative approach has been developed to extend the event maximum method for use with ship line-load data. In this approach ice pressures are calculated by dividing the ice force measured on frames by the corresponding line-load area (ALL), which is the product of the width (W) that is based on frame spacing and an assumed line-load height (H) corresponding to 30% of the maximum prevailing ice thickness, as per best design practice, along the lines of the Finnish-Swedish ice class rules. Data already presented as line-loads (in units of force per unit width), are converted to pressures by dividing line-loads by height H. The event definition used in the present approach is defined as the maximum pressure corresponding to 10- or 20-min intervals, as opposed to the impact event definition used in earlier works. In applying this extended method to develop new α-area curves, valuable insights into the relationship between local peak ice pressure and prevailing ice thickness have been gained for the above-mentioned full-scale measurements. The determined curves indicate a negative correlation between prevailing ice thickness and maximum local nominal ice pressure. Finally, it has been demonstrated that it is feasible to apply such curves in combination with the principle of the event-maximum method to estimate the maximum nominal ice pressure expected for a ship given a specified transit distance in sea ice with different prevailing thicknesses.
Autonomous shipping is a heavily researched topic, and currently, there are large amounts of ship traffic data available but unexploited. Autonomous ships have the potential to reduce costs and increase safety. The challenge is achieving the correct maritime navigation behavior according to the situation reliably, which may be possible by exploiting historical ship traffic data. This thesis explores the possibility of using offline reinforcement learning based on AIS data to learn autonomous maritime navigation. The hypothesis that AIS data can be used for training a reinforcement learning agent is tested by implementing an offline reinforcement learning agent. For comparison, an online agent that learns without data is also implemented. Both agents are trained and evaluated in a simulator, and the goal of both agents is to learn to navigate to a destination, given a starting point. The results suggest that offline reinforcement learning can be used for automating maritime navigation, but a more extensive and more diverse dataset is needed to conclude its effectiveness.