SMARTShip by Alpha Ori Technologies receives ClassNK certification

July 18, 2019: Alpha Ori Technologies (AOT)'s patented digital shipping solution SMARTShip™ has been certified by the leading ship classification society ClassNK. Hourai Maru, a mid-sized gas carrier delivered recently, was the first ship certified with a ClassNK-approved SMARTShip™.

ClassNK’s certification for SMARTShip™ covers approval of the solution as a ‘computer based system’ which conforms to the class society’s rules governing a product performing ‘remote monitoring and diagnostics’, ‘situational awareness’ and ‘decision support systems’, both onboard and ashore.

SMARTShip™ is an Internet of Things (IoT) platform that enables the onboard operation of multiple systems with varying degrees of autonomy.

Welcoming the certification, Captain Rajesh Unni, co-CEO of AOT and CEO and founder of leading Singapore-based shipmanager Synergy Group, said, “ClassNK is renowned globally for its exceptional quality. Its approval provides quality and reliability assurance for our SMARTShip solutions, especially to Japanese clients but also to our many maritime customers located around the world. This is also recognition that AOT has quickly emerged as an industry leader in the field of technology and digital shipping. Technology is transforming our industry. AOT’s approach to tackling pain points and enabling rules-based decision-making gives clients added transparency and delivers multiple operational, financial and environmental benefits.”

AOT’s SMARTShip™ platform takes a holistic approach to solving maritime pain-point issues for stakeholders like ship owners, ship managers, ship operators, port management, surveyors, ship registries, P&I clubs and shipbuilders. Data is collected from all parts of the ship to create a platform which connects disparate systems. This enables the continual monitoring and collection of data, helping crew and managers make rules-based decisions.

“SMARTShip™ leverages AOT’s proprietary hardware and software and cloud-based infrastructure to collect and transmit more than 5,000 data points from various systems on board,” said Captain Unni. “It utilises the data collected to create value for stakeholders, often including additional information such as weather overlay, statutory and regulatory information etc. The front-end user experience includes intuitive applications which facilitate monitoring and diagnostics of operational issues.”

Features such as the optimisation of total fuel consumption and the creation of intelligent alerts and leading indicators are an integral part of SMARTShip™. For example, a quick visualization dashboard for critical assets and their parameters is available with drill-down options showing all related information in list and graph views.

“SMARTShip’s remote monitoring & diagnostics (RMD) provides clients with the capability to troubleshoot remotely,” added Captain Unni. “This generates huge savings on the usual cost required to send a service engineer to the actual location of the ship for troubleshooting.”

SMARTShip’s situational awareness decision support system (DSS) incorporates applications including SMARTAlert notifications for preventing incidents, TFOC (Total Fuel Oil Consumption) fuel optimisation application and ASSET AI predictive maintenance applications.

“AOT has deployed these systems on 30 vessels as in date and we have commitments for another 60 more in the pipeline for this year,” said Captain Unni. “By installing these systems, clients have seen improved operational efficiency via greater transparency, reduced RMD costs – preventing breakdowns, increasing time between overhauls etc. – and optimised fuel use.”