iHelm: AI In Climate and AI for the sustainability of short-sea vessels

This assist function, Artificial Intelligence (AI) based decision making, will show the best operational sweet spot for the environment, comfort of passengers and time of arrival based on a large amount of operational data. The product, a data-based service, will use AI technologies to identify operations, use real-time data and categorize the operations.

The current prototype is based on off-the-shelf hardware with simplified software. The first prototype showed a potential for significant fuel (10-35%) and emission reduction for marine commercial segment with a potential for creating a sustainable business. However, in order to make a positive business case out of this idea, part of commissioning, software adjustment to operation and maintenance need to be automated using AI technologies.

To this end, the project will drive research on AI for aware systems, and develop novel machine learning methods and decision support tools that improve operational efficiency and reduce inappropriate use of complex equipment.

A successful product will lead to significantly shortening the resource training time (currently years of experience needed), hence moving toward a resource efficiency for this segment. This project aims to strengthening partnership between the business segment, AI research in Sweden and climate change for the marine segment.

The outcome of this project should also help authorities to define new ways of measuring and enforcing commitment to emission targets in the marine commercial segment.