Cruise & Ferry Review - Spring/Summer 2021

1 0 4 Combining the power of humans and machines ABB engineers are training machine learning algorithms to deliver faster and more reliable remote fleet support and troubleshooting services to passenger ship operators A BB Marine & Ports delivers support services to passenger shipping customers worldwide via its eight ABB Ability Collaborative Operations Centers. From locations in Europe, Asia and the Americas, ABB experts monitor shipboard systems, coordinate equipment diagnostics and offer 24/7 maintenance services. Real- time data is shared between these centres so staff can help with resolving onboard issues or identifying anomalies before they become faults, regardless of their location. Now, ABB is exploring how it can harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve marine diagnostics and maintenance. The technology optimises condition monitoring, reducing the burden on crew members and engineers, while increasing system reliability, vessel performance and safety. The shipping industry is ready to adopt AI on a larger scale and its progress is being driven by several key factors. For instance, machine learning techniques have advanced considerably in recent years, and the software allowing these novel methods to be applied to industrial data sets is now more widely available. Just as significant are the wider availability of historical data and the presence of a digital infrastructure that allows information to be collected from vessels and stored in the cloud at a relatively low cost. ABB is playing a key part in this development. Its ‘Electric. Digital. Connected.’ strategy encompasses every element in the digital ecosystem, facilitating the collection of data from connected machines and devices onboard ship, as well as its secure storage in the cloud. Using past data to prepare algorithms for a specific purpose is fundamental to modern machine learning methods. In the maritime sector, for example, past maintenance data is combined with operational and failure data to develop a condition-based approach that allows engineers to predict malfunctions ahead of time. While historical data is crucial to machine learning, human input is equally important. For the past decade, engineers have used the data to provide services like diagnostics, fault detection and troubleshooting, so they possess insights into customer equipment and systems that cannot be gleaned from data alone. Hence, ABB is developing interfaces to enable experienced engineers to train machine learning algorithms and create AI systems that will provide faster and more reliable services to customers. Support engineers often assist customers whose operations have been FEATURE: SUPPORTING SHIP OPERATORS By Morten Stakkeland, ABB Marine & Ports “ ABB is developing interfaces to enable engineers to train machine learning algorithms”