E!115620/COD15: Active Airkeel stabiliser control for increased comfort and safety, fuel efficiency and operation flexibility of workboats
Alternativ tittel: E!115620/COD15: Airkeel-aktiv kontroll/stabilisator for økt sikkerhet, bedre utnyttelse av drivstoff og fleksibel operasjon av arbeidsbåter
AMCOSTAR-konsortiet har utviklet en aktiv stabilisator som kalles Airkeel og som øker sikkerheten og optimaliserer driften av mindre arbeidsbåter som typisk brukes i akvakultur og havvind. Dette gjør det mulig å bruke mindre båter effektivt i slike operasjoner, noe som gir bedre sikkerhet, mindre drivstoff-forbruk og bedre utnyttelse av disse båtene.
Systemet tar i bruk AI teknologi for å forbedre algoritmene og forbedre systemet gjennom aktiv bruk.
Gjennom et aktivt stabilisator-system er det nå mulig å oppnå totalt bedre utnyttelse av disse båtene gjennom bedre bevegelseskontroll, økt lastekapasitet og krankapasitet og større værvindu.
Systemet er spesielt rettet mot følgende båttyper:
- CTV (offshore wind)
Fokus: bedre komfort og sikkerhet for mannskapet, økt lastekapasitet, større værvindu, mindre forbruk av drivstoff.
- Arbeidsbåter til akvakultur og andre krevende oppgaver til havs
Fokus: økt laste- og krankapasitet, utvidet arbeidsområde, reduserte totale flåtekostnader
- Hurtigbåter for personal-transport
Fokus: bedre komfort og sikkerhet for mannskapet, mindre sjøsyke, bedret sikkerehet, større værvindu, bedre flåteutnyttelse.
The Project outcome has been to develop and demonstrate an integrated Airkeel and adaptive control system (ACS) enabling enhanced stability and capacity for smaller boats (6-40m). The Airkeel adds buoyancy used as inverted pendulum, which leads to lighter, more stable boats with higher load & crane capacity to size ratio. Applying advanced learning/AI with new data derived, will permit comfortable and safe operations in harsh weather, which is essential for its commercialization. The Project will enable the Consortium to apply the ACS to act as a roll countermeasure where waves or currents challenge the boat stability. This means better stability of their boats, which will enable e.g. mounting larger cranes of 100%, increased capacity to 15 m work boats (WBs) like Klara II, increased load of +33% and fuel savings of 10%. Finally, the ACS will empower the Airkeel to reduce propulsion energy consumption by 10% (fossil or renewable), which is foreseen to improve energy efficiency, promising a dual climate mitigation contribution. For fossil fuels, this means reducing greenhouse gas emissions of 10% (GHGs); for electric boats, this means increased geographical and application range, accelerating the transition towards boat electrification.
BACKGROUND
For aquaculture, e.g. salmon farms which dominate in-shore aquaculture in the Baltic and the North Sea, hybrid and electric boats are being introduced (Annex F5a; H1e-i). Boat designers would select larger boats with higher fuel consumption for offering their customers a stable platform for mounting high capacity cranes as independent modules
The AMCOSTAR consortium aims at developing an active Airkeel system by enhancing active control through advanced feedback learning to permit challenging operations such as: precision heel and roll motion control, high loads, increased crane capacity, operation in hard weather, for the following three vessel types:
- CTV (offshore wind)
Focus: Crew comfort and safety, augmented load capacity, extended weather window, fuel savings.
- Workboat (e.g. in-shore aquaculture, offshore construction sites)
Focus: Increased cargo and crane capacity, extended operations, fleet cost optimization.
- Crew boat (e.g. aquaculture, offshore construction sites)
Focus: Crew comfort and safety, Extended weather window, cost and usage optimized fleet usage.
This approach brings together our consortium’s know-how and IP (Q32). Namely:
- DACOMA, who has developed, patented and prototype tested a novel vessel stabilizer system for the offshore marine industries, based on their proprietary, ground-breaking Airkeel technology
- TUCO, specialized in designing and manufacturing workboats; experienced in system installation and full-scale testing
- A+D, specialised in in- and off-shore markets data with a focus on energy (wind) and aquaculture (salmon) segments
- SDU, extensive knowledge about control system theory, modelling and operation simulations