Remote inspections and audits for DP system, a first in the industry

Kongsberg Maritime, Bureau Veritas and BOURBON carried out remote inspections and audits for DP system.

In the framework of BOURBON’s Smart shipping program, Kongsberg Maritime, Bureau Veritas and BOURBON carried out the first successful testing of a newly-developed application that enables remote surveying of Dynamic Positioning systems onboard on the Bourbon Explorer 508, off Angola.

“DP Digital Survey” is a solution developed by Kongsberg Maritime, in close collaboration with Bourbon and Bureau Veritas DP experts. It is a digital tool running on an industrial data management system that ensures unprecedented data consistency to verify onboard systems. “DP Digital Survey” acquires the information directly from the ships’ control systems and delivers it to the auditors via a secure cloud infrastructure, thus representing a real improvement in terms of quality of services. The ability to remotely survey the data output from the solution is a first for the industry and a further step on the road to ever smarter ships. The new application stands out from alternatives, providing real data of test completion evidence, not just photographs and video recordings.

The anticipated next steps as the “DP Digital Survey” tool evolves will include: improvements and increased automation of the survey process; and the ability to establish a continuous DP survey framework allowing detailed, and continual, remote monitoring.

Laurent Leblanc, Vice-President, Marine Operations, Bureau Veritas commenting said: "The key for us is to receive reliable performance and failure data - not just photos and pictures. We first check the data is of sufficient quality: data quality management is a key factor along with cyber-security for data transfer. Our expertise is then used to review and assess the data. This provides access to a higher level and depth of ‘onshore’ engineering expertise to make judgements on results."

Eivind Alling, Vice-President of Digital Performance at Kongsberg Maritime added: "This collaboration allows us to strengthen our core products by offering our customers tools that will reduce their OPEX and streamline their operations. KONGSBERG strives for innovation and we are creating new applications that will give our end customers more control of their data to support their operations."

Frederic Moulin, One Bourbon Operations Director commented: "This project greatly contributes to our Smart shipping program ambition; to capitalize on the digital revolution in order to stand out through a connected fleet and to reduce our operational costs. With our partners, we are ready to extend this “Digital DP Survey” to sister-ships in the next months and plan for further deployment later."