Secure, Efficient and Safe maritime traffic Management in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore

The SESAME Straits project is an e-navigation innovation project which aims to predict possible vessel traffic hot-spots in congested waterways and offers new strategies to avoid such congestion. These will improve the safety of vessel traffic and enable "Just-in-time" arrival of vessels, improving the efficiency of existing infrastructure, and reduce the environmental footprint. e-Navigation is a framework developed under the UN's International Maritime Organization (IMO), for bringing harmonization, standardization and inter-operability to maritime information systems, to enhance safety and security in commercial shipping and to protect the environment. In the SESAME Straits project, the vessel traffic is predicted several days in advance of arrival. This allows for new operational services, such as: -Just in time arrival advice: Up to several days before the ship's arrival -Optimal transit speed: To reduce ship's bunkers and lower GHG emissions -Efficient traffic flow through narrow and restricted under keel clearance waterways -Better utilization of port resources such as anchorages, berths, pilots, etc. New decision support tooling for Vessel Traffic Service Operators (VTSO) will be developed. The VTSO can send suggested routes and speeds to the vessels electronically. On board the vessels, the changes are evaluated and accepted, or new suggestions made. This concept of "Shared Situational Awareness" and "Collaborative Decision support" between ship and shore, creates an entire new dimension in Ship Traffic Management. SESAME Straits has received endorsement from all relevant marine navigation stakeholders, including IMO, IHO, IALA, ICS, BIMCO, CIRM, the Norwegian Coastal Administration and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. Together they have formed a High Level Advisory Board for the Project. The Project consists of the following partners: The Norwegian Coastal Administration, Marintek, Navtor, The University College of Buskerud and Vestfold and Kongsberg. During 2015, the project has engaged in a broad spectrum of activities. In Work Package 1 (Monitoring and control strategy), we completed a document called "Interaction Processes, simulations, metrics, and voyage guidance principles" that establishes how shared situational awareness and cooperative decision support shall be provided from the shore-side perspective. In Work Package 2 (Analysis of decision making process), several interviews with onshore and onboard personnel to determine how navigational and safety related decisions are made. Later, a survey with over 200 respondents was conducted to determine the acceptance of new technology as well as the willingness to share data ship-to-shore. The results are being analyzed and interpreted currently. This work was done as part of the Human Centered Design approach the project has adopted. In Work Package 3 (System Design), an initial System Design document has been developed that describes how the technology systems onboard and onshore work together. In Work Package 4 (Data Collection and preparation), several months of terrestrial and satellite AIS data and weather data has been collected and evaluated. The conclusions form part of the "Interaction Processes, simulations, metrics, and voyage guidance principles" document. In Work Package 5 (Simulator Development), development of a unique type of traffic simulator has been developed, and the output of this simulator will be data for the shore-based decision support module of the overall system. This simulator identifies likely congestion areas and hotspots along a vessel's route. This information, during the demonstration phase, will be communicated to onboard systems. In Work Package 6 (Cooperative Decision Support), a new prototype decision support module has been developed that includes support for receiving, updating, and displaying a route sent from a vessel. This prototype will begin field testing in December 2015. In Work Package 7 (Ship-shore data communication), prototype VDES transponders are currently under development and will be ready for field testing in Q1 2016. In Work Package 8 (Upgraded planning station/ECDIS), the onboard planning station has been significantly upgraded, and a new prototype ECDIS supporting route exchange with the planning station and shore-based systems has been developed. Both will be field tested in December 2015. In Work Package 9 (Demonstration and Dissemination), a number of public presentations have been conducted at professional conferences, and one Master's Thesis has been published related to the project. The SESAME Sea Trial was held from March to April 2017. The Sea Trial was successful on all accounts, and details can be found in the attached final report. The project results were presented during the e-Navigation Forum on April 26, 2017 in Singapore.

The project intends to revolutionize traditional Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) which today only provide monitoring and advisory services locally. The innovation of the proposed system is to provide a cooperative platform that will be able to predict traff ic for tactical as well strategic planning for several days in advance of arrival. This includes new operational services for a regional Maritime Service Portfolio (MSP), such as: -Just in time arrival advice: Up to several days before the ship's arrival -Optimal transit speed: To reduce ship's bunkers and lower GHG emissions -Efficient traffic flow through narrow and restricted under keel clearance waterways -Better utilization of port resources such as anchorages, berths, pilots, etc. Due to its close link to stakeholders through the HLAB,the project will be a highly important important test-bed for IMOs e-Navigation concept and for contributions to its implementation. Inherent in the project goal is to develop a new digital communication infrastructur e for exchanging information between ship and shore. The new infrastructure utilizes emerging new possibilities in the VHF band, including digital communication over terrestrial and satellite links as well as the e-Navigation S-100 framework for data e xchange. This will be a critical enabling factor for the whole e-Navigation concept. The project results will be demonstrated in a complete and realistic test-bed with key e-Navigation stakeholders participating.