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Blog World ECDIS Day 2019: “Challenges, Advantages and Solutions of Digitisation” Panel

September 26, 2019

Yesterday the third bi-annual World ECDIS Day conference took place in Hamburg, Germany, providing a forum to discuss topics around the challenges and solutions for digital transformation across the commercial marine industry. Under the auspices of the event’s theme of Digital Culture Beyond ECDIS, moderator Capt. Paul Hailwood led a lively panel discussion titled “Challenges, Advantages and Solutions of Digitisation,” which included perspectives from Sea Machines, ChartWorld, Meteogroup, The Standard Club and Carnival Maritime.

During the Sea Machines portion of the panel, Jesse Roper, user interface team lead, (pictured) honed in on the topic of risk assessment, explaining what challenges must be managed for the industry to adopt autonomous shipping. He also shared details about Sea Machines’ SM300 autonomous-command and remote-helm control system for workboats and other commercial vessels, calling out the product’s highly valuable applications in marine spill response and marine fire operations. Moving on to Sea Machines’ in-development products, he outlined the abilities of the SM400 advanced perception and situational awareness technology for larger ships. This product, currently being trialed aboard an A.P. Moller-Maersk container ship, utilizes computer vision, LiDAR and sensor fusion software to offer ship operators improved at-sea situational awareness, object identification and tracking capabilities. The system will also provide intuitive remote monitoring and can serve as a data recording platform.

World ECDIS Day attendees were also treated to three hour-long workshops, one of which was hosted aboard a passenger vessel that navigated the River Elbe (pictured). The event proved to be an exceptional opportunity for Sea Machines to hear from vessel owners about their digitization needs and concerns, and to share the latest product details.

Photos by Jesse Roper and Uwe Scheumann