Shipbuilder Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) has announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SK Shipping, Intel, Microsoft, the Ulsan Center for Creative Economy & Innovation (UCCEI) and the Daejeon Center for Creative Economy & Innovation (DCCEI), which aims to create a new ‘Eco System’ for the development of smart ships.
Under the MoU, HHI and its partners will work together to help small and medium-sized ICT companies in Korea to develop what it is calling a ‘17 Ship Service Software’ application for vessels to assist in ballast tank inspection, remote medical treatment services for crews, virtual reality training, automatic voyage information reporting, and maintenance for key equipment.
The partners are aiming for the software to be developed and applied to smart ships by 2019, HHI says.
HHI and SK Shipping will provide technological mentoring services and smart ship platforms for the future software while UCCEI and DCCEI will advise on technology demands from shipbuilders and shipping companies to encourage the participation of external technology companies.
“The Korean shipbuilding industry has developed on the back of advanced manufacturing technology but now is the time for us to shift our focus to differentiated ship service technologies. We see that customised and value-added software will play a role in reviving the industry,” said a HHI official, in a statement.
In May this year, HHI and Accenture jointly unveiled OceanLink, a smart ship platform incorporating a network of sensors and analytics software that can allow shipowners to monitor a ship’s status and condition in real-time.
