Q DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY
Software ecosystems With OEMs developing individual data retrieval methods, is it time 16
shipping began to defi ne international data exchange protocols? Charlie Bartlett reports
M
uch like shipyards, carmakers work hard to fi t their vehicles with the latest high-performance technology. But in the automotive industry it is taken for granted that
simply having the best available piston heads and turbochargers isn’t enough by itself – these components must also be meticulously tuned to work in concert. In times past, this was a job for oily hands, encyclopaedic knowledge of valve timings, and lengthy trial and error; but today’s engineers instead programme a small digital hub, the engine control unit (ECU), for maximum fuel economy, wringing out the best specifi c performance and emissions fi gures their components will allow (with the obvious exception of Lamborghinis). Acting as the car’s central nervous system,
the ECU has opened up a wealth of possibilities for carmakers. Chief among them is the ability to improve the vehicle without adding a single nut or bolt. And, with so much expertise being deployed, it is much easier, and much faster, to improve the software than the hardware. Now, at last, shipping’s innovators have
fi nally begun to realise this. A typical vessel may feature an engine, turbocharger, propeller
cut waiting times. Batteries and engines would be connected to the navigation system, which would in turn be connected via the cloud to ports and shoreside centres. Unfortunately, there may be trouble ahead.
As well as Wärtsilä, DNV GL, ABB, Rolls-Royce, ClassNK and others are all working on their own ecosystem platforms. Each has claimed it will take every precaution to maximise its ‘open’ platform’s compatibility with those of its competitors, but this begs the question: why? Would it not be in their commercial best
interests to grow the fastest and deny their competitors a foothold? For Peter Mantel, managing director of BMT
Peter Mantel: Let’s start to share data
and shaft generator – all from different OEMs. And this often means that ineffi ciencies are created as one manufacturer’s subsystem tries to overcome its language barrier to ‘talk’ to another. Now, various OEMs are developing their own software ‘ecosystems’ to deal with this problem, linking various components together like a nervous system. Late last year, Wärtsilä discussed how the
company would go about installing and refi ning its own ecosystem, which would not only be ship-wide but fl eet-wide, and would, crucially, involve port systems in the process to
Smart – a veteran of the software integration and performance management fi eld – this rosy collaborative world is a ‘pipe dream’, thanks to the lack of the prerequisite universal data- exchange format, open to all comers, with no proprietary limitations. Currently, he says, no such initiative is under discussion. “There are no working groups to defi ne some sort of common, international data exchange protocol. There’s no open platform – apart from some very old standards, referred to as NMEA, and more recently Modbus. “It might be slightly different on the
classifi cation side. With DNV GL’s Veracity open industry platform, there’s been a lot of
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