A new start-up company, Ocean Intelligence, is using state-of-the-art forecasting, satellite data, and artificial intelligence to optimise vessel transit time, fuel consumption, and carbon dioxide emissions in real time, potentially saving the cruise industry more than US$2 billion per year.
Ocean Intelligence Chief Scientific Officer, Shane Keating, says its tech is demonstrating consistent emissions reductions of between 10-20% per voyage, and at the technology’s full maturity, it is expected to cut fuel burn by more than 20% per voyage.
The technology, billed as the “Google Maps for the seas”, harnesses ocean currents to generate the most fuel-efficient route for each vessel, utilising low-cost onboard sensors to provide dynamic navigation, and creating a digital twin of each ship for emissions monitoring.
Ocean Intelligence has been tested on more than 70 cargo ships, comparing their fuel use between the route they sailed and the optimised route, with Keating saying he is now looking to test the tech on cruise ships.
“The ships that are most affected by ocean currents are the ones that move a lot slower…the cumulative effect is much greater…but, when you get into the numbers, every vessel benefits,” he told Cruise Weekly.
“When you actually convert [fuel savings] into tonnes of fuel, and then convert that into the dollar saving, it makes your eyes water,” he added.
Keating believes Ocean Intelligence is well suited to the cruise industry, as the solution requires no retrofitting of a ship.
The technology’s goal of optimising each route also means ships would not have to modify their departure or arrival times.
“You’ll travel a longer distance because you’re not taking the shortest route, but your engines will not be working as hard,” Keating said.
“[This is] because you will be using ocean currents that are favourable when you can, and avoiding the unfavourable ocean currents when you can.”
While Ocean Intelligence is open to partnering with any cruise line and any vessel, Keating believes the expedition sector would be an excellent partner for the tech.
“Expedition cruise ships go to more remote places, there’s very few measurements out there, and so even a couple of measurements would have an enormous effect on our ability to predict the ocean in that location,” he said – for more info, visit oceanintelligence.ai. MS