Singapore centre will develop smart vessels

The opening of the Acceleration Centre marks the milestone agreement signed between Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Wärtsilä in April 2018 to collaborate in areas of intelligent vessels, connected smart port operations, cyber-physical security and digital acceleration.

“Such projects will enable us to develop new concepts and capabilities that support more efficient operation and regulation of our future port,” said Dr Lam Pin Min, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Transport and Ministry of Health.

IntelliTug project

The first project to be co-created at the Wärtsilä Acceleration Centre is the Wärtsilä IntelliTug. The project to develop a harbour tug with autonomous navigation is being carried out together with MPA and PSA Marine.

The vessel will be capable of performing a range of routine missions designed to further improve tug safety and efficiencies, while reducing operator workload and pressures in one of the world’s most demanding harbour environments.

The IntelliTug project aims to deliver tangible customer value and provide a notable contribution to regional sustainability goals.

This will include a new-to-market near-field wideband radar and real-time video analytics, integrated with a light-weight human-centric mission control system to supervise the close quarters and alert users on collision avoidance using adaptive, dynamic route planning capabilities.

In 2019, together with MPA and PSA Marine, Wärtsilä will test-bed the IntelliTug concept on an existing tugboat in Singapore’s actual operational port.