Ship-Shore Integrated Information Monitoring System

System architecture

The ship’s green fuel control, monitoring, and safety system automatically monitors, controls, and alarms during the ship’s green fuel loading and refueling processes as well as the fuel supply process, enabling automated control of the ship’s fuel usage and ensuring safe ship operations.

Applicable fuels: green fuels such as natural gas, methanol/ethanol, ammonia, liquefied petroleum gas, and hydrogen.

Schematic Diagram of the Integrated Ship-Shore Monitoring System

As shown in the figure below, the hardware configuration of the energy consumption and vessel management system mainly includes the bridge control panel, the central control room control panel, the monitoring cabinet, the energy consumption analysis and data relay station, the switch, the firewall, as well as field instruments and meters (including flow meters, shaft power meters, etc.). The software configuration comprises the bridge control panel software, the central control room control panel software, the energy consumption analysis and data relay software, the shore-based remote management and analysis software, and the PLC controller program. The monitoring cabinet communicates with the engine room monitoring and alarm system, the liquid-level telemetry system, the navigation system, and other systems or devices requiring data input and output (via Modbus TCP/RTU), collecting real-time data from these systems and devices. Meanwhile, field instruments and meters (such as shaft power meters and flow meters) transmit their collected real-time data to the monitoring cabinet via hardwired connections (4–20 mA). The monitoring cabinet performs computational processing on the collected real-time data and transmits this data to the energy consumption analysis and data relay station via Modbus communication (Modbus TCP/RTU). The relay station stores real-time data, historical data, and logs from the system, and based on the collected data, it conducts energy consumption and energy efficiency analysis, emission analysis, voyage analysis, and provides navigation recommendations. The data is then pushed via ship-shore communication (the specific form to be determined) to client-side software (management and analysis software) for data analysis and visualization, and these data are simultaneously synchronized and stored in a cloud database. The bridge control panel allows users to set fuel consumption targets or cruising speeds. Once set, the system can adaptively and automatically optimize propulsion power based on real-time data such as current speed, draft, and sea conditions, and then control and output the optimized results to reduce fuel consumption during navigation.

Energy Consumption and Shipping Management System Architecture Diagram

System Composition

• Energy Consumption Analysis and Data Hub: Includes 1 maritime computer + 1 maritime display (or an all-in-one maritime device), keyboard, and mouse. Equipped with 1 switch and pre-installed with energy consumption analysis and data processing software. The all-in-one maritime device and maritime display have a front-panel protection rating of IP65 and a rear-panel protection rating of IP22. They can be installed on the bridge console or deployed in other locations.

• Control Panel in the Central Control Room: The control panel adopts a combination of a touch screen and physical components. The physical components include buttons, indicator lights, buzzers, dimming knobs, and more. The functions of the physical buttons are designed and configured according to Party A’s requirements. The touch screen runs control-panel software that allows users to view relevant alarm information and real-time parameters. The enclosure’s protection rating is IP65 for the front panel and IP22 for the rear panel.

• Shaft Power Meter: A bearing-mounted measuring instrument for torque and power measurement. It can be installed on either the propeller shaft or the connecting shaft; select the model of shaft power meter based on the finally determined installation location.

• Flow meters: two sets of flow meters for the oil inlet pipes of the main units; one set of flow meter shared by both main units for the return oil pipe; two sets of flow meters for the auxiliary unit’s oil inlet and return lines; one set of flow meter for the boiler; positive-displacement flow meters installed on the oil supply lines.

• Marine electronic inclinometer: Used to measure the ship's inclination angle status information.

System functions

• Fuel Consumption Setting: Fuel consumption parameters can be set via the cab control panel and transmitted to the monitoring cabinet for propulsion power optimization calculations through serial communication (Modbus RTU).

• Speed Setting: The speed parameters can be set via the control panel in the driver’s cabin and transmitted through the monitoring cabinet to the main engine remote control system control box, thereby indirectly controlling the ship’s speed. Additionally, the data is transmitted to the monitoring cabinet via serial communication (Modbus RTU) for optimized propulsion power calculation.

• Automatic Optimization of Propulsion Power Based on Real-Time Operating Conditions: The monitoring cabinet collects real-time operating parameters from the main engine, generator, boiler, navigation information, and other sources. Combined with fuel consumption and speed parameters set on the control panel in the driver’s cabin, the controller module’s program is designed to implement an automatic propulsion-power optimization algorithm. By integrating the collected real-time parameters, the controller outputs optimized propulsion power to the propulsion remote-control system, enabling real-time control and adjustment of propulsion. This achieves automatic propulsion-power control based on real-time operating conditions, thereby reducing fuel consumption during navigation.

• Monitoring, Alarm, and Control: Deploy corresponding application software on the energy consumption analysis and data relay station, the cab control panel, and the central control room control panel to display real-time alarms and parameter information monitored by the energy consumption and vessel management systems. The system also features audible and visual alarm indications, alarm acknowledgment, and mute functions.

• Energy Consumption Analysis: The energy consumption analysis and data hub are equipped with corresponding application software to display and store real-time data, historical data, and logs monitored by the energy consumption and vessel management systems. In addition, an energy consumption analysis model is designed based on the monitoring signals to analyze real-time energy consumption data and present the analysis results, including information such as remaining fuel quantity, cumulative fuel consumption for the current month, distribution of fuel usage (fuel consumption of main engines, fuel consumption of generators, and fuel consumption of boilers), average fuel consumption over the most recent 50 nautical miles, cumulative average fuel consumption per 100 nautical miles, cumulative average cost per 100 nautical miles, and trends in costs across multiple vessels. Specific functions shall be subject to the approved drawings and technical specifications.

• Emission Analysis and Reporting: Communicate with emission monitoring systems and equipment via communication protocols, or collect real-time emission data using sensors and other methods. Combined with a specially designed emission analysis and calculation model, analyze and present emission conditions, including monthly cumulative emissions, emissions within the most recent 50 nautical miles, cumulative average emissions per 100 nautical miles, and comparative displays of emission trends among multiple vessels. Specific functions shall be subject to the approved drawings and technical specifications.

• Navigation Analysis and Reporting: Based on energy consumption data and the results of energy consumption analysis, this system conducts a comprehensive analysis by integrating information from the navigation and communication systems—including vessel tracks, speeds, voyage durations, route waypoints, and road conditions—to assess and present findings on navigation efficiency, fuel economy, and voyage costs, thereby supporting shipowners’ operational management and decision-making.

• Vessel Information Display: In the vessel management interface, you can view information on all vessels, including vessel names and IMO details, as well as the number of positions currently occupied, upcoming departures, and remaining vacancies.

• User Management: The User Management section displays all sub-users managed under the current account. Accounts registered and logged in via mobile phone number are considered primary accounts, while newly added users become subordinate accounts under these primary accounts. The primary account holder can delete, edit, assign roles to, and allocate trees—and projects and project views under tree nodes—to their subordinate accounts.

• Vessel Infrastructure Management: Used for creating basic vessel information, including vessel name, current group-based vessel tag information, route start and end times, latitude and longitude settings, vessel type, vessel length, and other related details.

• Comprehensive Management: Used to display information related to the vessel, including the number of vessels, total number of devices, number of devices online and offline, number of users, historical alarm count, and number of maintenance orders, etc.;

• Voyage Monitoring: Intelligent System Software. This system adopts a B/S architecture and can be used on devices with web-browsing capabilities. Both onboard and shore-based users can access it. Laptops can connect to the network via wireless Wi-Fi from either the vessel or the shore.

• Cabin Monitoring: An intelligent cabin is a technological system that leverages on-site sensors, transmitters, controllers, monitoring software, and other advanced technologies to automatically collect real-time status information and parameters from various systems and equipment within the cabin. Based on computer technology, automatic control technology, and big data processing and analysis techniques, this system enables automated monitoring, assessment, and decision-support in areas such as ship navigation, management, and maintenance. As an emerging field in the era of digital and intelligent technologies, the intelligent cabin has become a trend-setting direction for global ship design and construction, profoundly impacting the upgrading and innovation of the entire maritime industry. At present, Japan, South Korea, and several European countries all regard intelligent cabins as key development areas. They have successively released numerous guiding strategic documents and launched a series of pivotal research projects in fields including smart ship systems, intelligent navigation, shore-based remote control, and formation sailing of vessels—aiming to seize the leading edge in future smart ship technologies and gain a competitive advantage in the coming era of “unmanned ships.”

• Energy Efficiency Monitoring: The system can collect real-time fuel consumption data from the main engine, auxiliary engine, and boiler, and transmit this data via a 4G network to the company’s server. At the shore-based management end, users can access the fuel consumption platform to review the tugboat’s fuel consumption status. The system can automatically generate basic data reports. Currently, there are six fuel data collection points, including one flow meter each for the left and right main engine fuel inlets, one shared return fuel line for both main engines, one flow meter each for the auxiliary engine’s fuel inlet and return lines, and one flow meter for the boiler. The flow meters are manufactured by Aquametro, model VZFII, and are positive-displacement flow meters. It is necessary to install additional shaft power meters and related monitoring functions.

Technical indicators

Application

Suitable for various types of vessels, offshore facilities, and interaction with configuration software on engineer stations of secondary development platforms for ship automation systems.