New standards for data exchange in ship operations

Says Mr. Stian Ruud, project manager at DNV, one of the world's leading suppliers of services within ship safety and certification:

"Wouldn't it be nice to operate your ship in accordance with reference data, having corrections and warnings all along? This is exactly what our ship operational model aims to deliver."

Until today, most shipboard computer systems have been stand-alone applications. Data from these systems cannot normally be transferred and used by other applications onboard or onshore. Standards for data exchange and representation are therefore eagerly awaited in the maritime industry.

Best EXPRESS-tool available

Ruud continues: "Our project based on the EXPRESS Data Model is now about to result in a proposal for a new ISO standard for data exchange in ship operations: In 1996, DNV developed a pilot Ship Operations data model together with other participants in a Norwegian research project called Information Technology in Ship Operations. The research program was initiated in 1994 and is a joint effort between about 50 industry-related companies."

The Ship Operations data model was written in EXPRESS (ISO 10303-Part 11) data modeling language and the data exchange was based on the STEP physical file format (ISO 10303-Part 21). "We used the STEP-based tools from the EXPRESS Data Manager product line developed by EPM Technology simply because we feel it is the best tool available," says Ruud.

The data model covers areas such as fuel and lubrication oil consumption, fuel and lubrication oil stock, bunkering data and main engine performance test data.

Main features

The main features of the ship operations data model are:

• It defines data exchange formats which are independent of software, hardware and operating systems. Data exchange can take place between onboard systems or between ship and onshore systems.
• It is designed for any combination of manual observations and automatic input from sensors.

The first part of the model is basically the same on all ships and operates independently of data collection methods. The other part of the model is configurable, relating to the sensors in the automatic data collection system. This part needs to be configured in each case.

• The data model will comply with the existing ISO/STEP application protocols. The resulting model is being prepared as a proposal for a New Work Item to ISO (TC184/SC4) and is expected to become an ISO-standard.
• The storage formats are suited for use as standardized official logs (bridge log, engine log, black box log).
• The model will be harmonized with the MiTS (Maritime IT Standard, IEC 1162-4).

Future application areas

Project manager Stian Ruud sees mainly three future application areas for the EXPRESS data models:

1. Standardized physical data exchange The data model defines standardized data exchange formats by means of ISO 10303-Part 21. The actual data exchange formats may be based either on explicit data models or subsets of data models called conformance classes.
2. ISO standardization The data model is the basis for a proposal for a new work item to the ISO (TC184/SC4/STEP). The proposal has been submitted to ISO.
3. IEC-ISO harmonization and standardization Real time data defined by the MiTS Companion standard is harmonized with the data elements in the new work item to ISO on Ship Operational Logs, Records and Messages.

FuelSTEP controlling bunkers oil

One of the crucial areas to control onboard a ship is the quality of the bunker fuel oil. Bad quality fuel could ruin the main engine within 24 hours and an oil analysis is therefore essential before using the fuel. When in port normally a fuel oil sample is sent by air courier to a laboratory, which submits the results by fax to the shipowner/manager and the ship. DNV Petroleum Services and EPM Technology have now developed an application, called FuelSTEP, which automatically inserts the fuel quality report information via E-mail into the operational database onboard the ship. This solution has been implemented and tested by MARINOR Shipping & Offshore Services AS in the EDIMAR ship operational database.