Deltamarin has signed a contract with the Estonian Transport Administration to develop a new concept for a ferry travelling between the big islands and the mainland.
The concept is expected to be completed in early 2023. The concept will be the basis for preparing a public procurement and further designing and constructing the ferry.
Color Line has ordered the Elogrid solution from Elomatic for two of its passenger car ferries to improve their energy efficiency. The Elogrid grid design for thruster openings reduces the additional resistance of vessels. This reduces fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Elogrid also enhances the performance of thruster tunnels, which leads to better maneuverability.
The European Space Agency (ESA) is joining the effort to deploy new technologies that will contribute to the automation of shipping.
Through its Navigation Innovation and Support Program (NAVISP), the agency is participating in a program to use satellite location technology to assist and ultimately automate the mooring of ships.
The new project will involve Italy’s Grimaldi Group working with Kongsberg and the Radiolabs Consortium and the involvement of the Italian Space Agency (ASI). The project’s goal is to design, execute and validate the berthing assistance system in operating conditions.
The first phase of the project, which is expected to last 18 months, will focus on the design of the equipment along with laboratory testing and pre-installation for the system to be tested on an in-service vessel.
The second phase, which has also been agreed with ESA and which is targeted to start in March 2024, plans to execute tests aboard the vessel.
The Grimaldi Satellite Assisted Berthing project foresees a system for assisted guidance during mooring using new satellite location technologies. The goal is to tie the satellite information into the ship’s automation systems.
The automation navigation testing will be carried out using one of the large ro-ro PCTC ships operated by Grimaldi and the test will take place at the Antwerp Euroterminal in Belgium.
During the first phase of the testing, the system will provide information to the ship’s command to assist in making decisions to facilitate mooring. The goal is to demonstrate a system that can fully automate berthing.