Alpha Ori Technologies secures ClassNK certification for IoT based SMARTShip

ClassNK’s certification for IoT 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, an Internet of Things (IoT) platform, enables the onboard operation of multiple systems with varying degrees of autonomy, has already been installed on more than 30 vessels and another 60 ships are at various stages of the set-up process.

Hourai Maru, a mid-sized gas carrier delivered recently, was the first ship certified with a ClassNK-approved SMARTShip.

Captain Rajesh Unni, Co-CEO of AOT, and CEO and founder of leading Singapore-based shipmanager Synergy Group, welcomed the certification of SMARTShip by ClassNK.

Captain Rajesh Unni 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.”

He added: “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. It utilizes 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.”

Martin Ackermann, CEO of BW LPG, a leading client of AOT, commented: “SMARTShip has already been critically acclaimed by industry leaders. With digitalization disrupting entire industries, we seek to realize the competitive advantage it can bring to BW LPG and, in turn, our customers. The SMARTShip solution from Alpha Ori Technologies enables us to combine our vessel’s operational data with a range of external data, so that, in real-time we can optimize performance on single vessels and across our entire fleet. We see great potential in improving safety, reducing costs and enhancing performance for the benefit of all our stakeholders."

Capt. Rajeeva Mathur, COO of Southern Pacific Holding Corp. C/O Kumiai Senpaku Co. Ltd, said: "Alpha Ori Technology’s SMARTShip system has introduced a whole new vision in the approach to ship operations for us at Kumiai Senpaku. We certainly feel that its transparency and the reliability of information it gives us makes it a very efficient and effective tool in improving commercial and operational enhancement. Our expectations have also been met on fuel optimization and predictive maintenance programmes. Our charterers and managers will continue to benefit from this."

Features such as the optimization 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.