Software Integration News

If autonomous vessels are the future of maritime shipping, then cyber threats may be its Achilles heel. Congested shipping, restricted visibility, limited maneuverability, and intensive docking activities all contribute to port hazards – 42 percent of EU reported marine accidents (injury/death/damage to ships) took place in port areas and 44 percent of workboat fatalities occurred on Tugs. Autonomous shipping should provide numerous benefits including increased safety by relieving crewmembers of unsafe and repetitious tasks.

Victaulic’s collaboration with SSI’s Autodesk ShipConstructor promises a streamlined design process, easier access to Victaulic piping specifications and proof positive that marrying hardware data and existing design technology can save time, money, weight and headaches for boat designers and shipyards alike.Is Victaulic’s time-tested turnkey approach to pipe joining right for you? That depends on a lot of things, but if better design options and a measurable benchmark of Total Installed Cost Savings would benefit your bottom line, then you’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying. And now, Victaulic’s catalog content inclusion in SSI’s ShipConstructor software gives naval architects and shipyards the convenient ability to ask…

The international shipping company Vroon has recently signed a fleetwide agreement with training provider Seagull Maritime. “Vroon has always been committed to safe practices and ensuring a duty of care for the safety and health of all employees and customers,” said Head Crewing, Diederic van Keulen, Vroon “We believe our continued success depends on the abilities and dedication of our staff and how we nurture each individual. We have always shared information and promoted teamwork throughout our organization.

Navis, a part of Cargotec Corporation, has announced that Colombia-based Sociedad Portuaria Regional de Cartagena (SPRC) and Terminal de Contenedores de Cartagena (CONTECAR) will both migrate to the N4 terminal operating system (TOS) following a combined twenty-year run on SPARCS. Located in Colombia’s Cartagena Bay, SPRC and CONTECAR have been recognized by shipping lines and industry associations alike as some of the most efficient ports in the Caribbean. Honored seven times as the Best Container Terminal…

ABS brought together nearly 100 industry leaders, government officials, technical experts, and academic leaders in Singapore to discuss cyber-related threats and risks in the marine environment and explain the value of the ABS CyberSafety program. The seminar is one of many ABS is hosting across Asia, Europe and the Americas currently. “ABS understands the cyber challenges owners and operators face today with increased software integration and greater levels of automation,” says ABS Chief Technology Officer Howard Fireman. The ABS CyberSafety program equips ship and asset owners, vendors and managers with the first risk-based management tool for mitigating risks connected to cybersecurity, automated systems safety, data integrity and software verification.

DNV GL has welcomed the world’s largest semi-submersible drilling rig into class recently. Ocean Greatwhite is 123 metres long and 78 metres wide and was delivered at Hyundai Heavy Industries in Ulsan, South Korea. Owned by the Houston-based drilling contractor Diamond Offshore, the rig will be chartered to oil major BP and will operate in the Great Australian Bight. Ocean Greatwhite is also the first new-build rig to receive the DNV GL Integrated Software Dependent Systems (ISDS) notation. ISDS are systems whose performance is dependent on the overall behaviour of their integrated software components. DNV GL’s ISDS standard helps owners and operators minimise software integration errors and delays in projects involving complex integrated systems.

FleetWeather Ocean Services, experts in business intelligence and analytics for the commercial shipping industry, today opened its doors under a new name and new brand: Accuritas Global Solutions…A business intelligence and analytics company. Executive Vice President Jess Hurwitz announced the name change reflecting continued focus and growth in providing industry-unique business intelligence, analytics and consulting services, and expansion from working within the commercial shipping industry to other modes of global transportation. The new name is effective immediately. “For the past several years, we have expanded the services we provide to the marine industry to meet the needs of our clients,” stated Jess Hurwitz, Accuritas’ Executive Vice President and CTO.

Ship construction programs move ahead, but it’s not smooth sailing. Navies and Coast Guards everywhere face budgetary pressure, even in the U.S. which has the largest Navy in the world. The balance between desire for capacity and capability and pressure for affordability has never been more acute with the precarious budgetary issues presented by declining defense budgets, sequestration, continuing resolutions and government shutdowns. Even so, there are ongoing major construction efforts to include large nuclear aircraft carriers and submarines…

General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics, completed the comprehensive risk reduction program for the U.S. Navy’s Knifefish Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) program. Designed to discover any potential systems defect early on in the program’s development phase, the configuration item test (CIT) successfully verified key components within the UUV system including the hardware architecture and critical areas of hardware and software integration.

Subsea 7, a provider of seabed-to-surface engineering, construction and services, announced that it has completed the design and build of the first commercial AIV, a technology which has the potential to revolutionise Life-of-Field projects. Subsea 7 has an ambitious plan to develop a series of Autonomous Inspection Vehicles (AIV), initially capable of general visual inspection, through to fully capable work-class sized intervention vehicles. A combined project team comprising hardware developers and operational personnel from Subsea 7 and Seebyte, a Scottish based software developer for the autonomous robotics market, has been working together to deliver the first vehicle.

“With the diagnostics and remote access that is being built into our rigs now, it is really important that software integrity is flawless,” said CEO Ivar Brandvold of Fred. Olsen Energy ASA. “Our analysis indicates that applying the ISDS class notation can easily save USD 6-20 million by avoiding the delays caused by the need to re-work software,” said Rolf Benjamin Johansen, the director of operations at software integration for DNV maritime and energy. “In fact, this range is conservative as it does not include avoided costs. Being on schedule avoids propagating supply-chain costs and loss of brand reputation. The ISDS notation focuses on how to set up and run a project and how to develop quality assurance processes that will last throughout the vessel’s lifetime.

Raytheon Co., Integrated Defense Systems, Tewksbury, Mass., is being awarded a $27,828,683 not-to-exceed modification to previously awarded contract (N00024-05-C-5346) for common display system (CDS) hardware and software integration with the Integrated Bridge Console and Distributed Control Workstation hardware in support of shipyard hull mechanical and electrical activation. The purpose of this modification is to incorporate the CDS hardware and software integration related changes in support of DDG 1000 program ship activation activities in the 2011 timeframe. These integration efforts represent changes to the current requirements of total ship computing environment software development.

Rolls-Royce Marine International Inc., Walpole, Mass., is being awarded a $5,672,842 cost plus fixed fee contract for a Compact High-Power High-Density Waterjet. The objective of this contract is for research to implement the waterjet technology developed in Phase I to resolve the anticipated cavitation erosion issues. This includes the preparation of the detailed design and fabrication of two full-scale waterjet prototypes for demonstration. The work will be performed in Walpole, Mass. (90 percent); Pascagoula, Miss. (7 percent); and Sweden (3 percent), and work is expected to be completed September 2011. Contract funds in the amount of $2,217,410 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

Progeny Systems Corp., Manassas, Va., is being awarded a $13,119,809 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to provide for the continued hardware/software development, systems engineering, procurement of Commercial Off-The-Shelf products and hardware/software integration to provide a common solution for automation and reduced manning systems in support of USS Virginia Class Submarines and other submarine/ surface ship systems. This effort is being awarded under a program for Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and is titled Topic No. N03-049, "Automation and Work Flow Advances Using Technology Infusions for Manning Reduction." The concept for this SBIR is for a Navy-wide implementation of portal technology for internal and external information sharing requirements.

Advanced Remote Communication Solutions (ARCOMS) has promoted Charles J. Drobny, Jr. to COO for its business unit, Boatracs. Drobny, who has served as vice president of Application Development for Boatracs Gulfport since November 1997, brings a vast amount of senior level management experience along with knowledge in the development of various critical software integration solutions for the marine industry. A graduate of The U.S. Military Academy with a B.S. in Engineering, Drobny holds an M.B.A. from The University of Cincinnati.

Intergraph Corporation reached an agreement with Lloyd's Register to build an interface between Intergraph's IntelliShip multi-discipline ship design software, and the Lloyd's Register assessment applications, RulesCalc and ShipRight SDA. The interface will result in significantly greater efficiencies in the classification process for Lloyd's Register classed ships. IntelliShip coupled with this new interface will improve the overall ship design, certification, construction and commissioning process. Shipyards and ship designers can readily check the model created in IntelliShip against Lloyd's Register's classification rules, eliminating redundant modeling and reducing errors.

From the USS Monitor to Theodore Roosevelt's "Great White" fleet to today's development of the Littoral Combat Ship, the U.S. Navy, its mission and its physical assets have undergone many complete metamorphoses over the country's 227-year history. Despite all of the recent talk of the "new" navy, there is no greater symbol of U.S. Sea Superiority than the nuclear Aircraft Carrier. And, there is arguably no better namesake for the soon-to-be commissioned CVN-76 than President Ronald Reagan, whose mission of a 600-ship Navy helped to define a generation. At first glance, from outside appearances, CVN-76 may appear to be a standard nuclear Aircraft Carrier, though "standard" is a gross understatement in this instance.