Evaluating the Benefits and Costs of Broadband VMS+ IoT Solutions for Fishing Vessel Performance, Diagnostics, and Safety at Sea in New England

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Project Description (Abstract): Most industrial commercial fishing vessels in the US and around the world still rely on outdated, narrowband vessel monitoring systems (VMS), VHF radios, and sometimes expensive Sat-phones for vessel tracking and emergency communication. They have very little access to real-time weather reports, wind information, wave heights, or even the location of surrounding ships. Onboard sensors for ship diagnostics, vessel performance, and safety are often scattered around the ship, and not integrated or often available for real-time notification and monitoring. To address these challenges the Fishing Partnership Support Services (FPSS) will work with Integrated Monitoring (IM) and the Commercial Fisheries Center of Rhode Island (CFCRI) to trial a new type of vessel monitoring system (VMS+), based on broadband/wireless technology, on a fleet of twenty mid to large size federally permitted commercial fishing vessels in Rhode Island. For this project, we will test and evaluate a core set of these sensors/monitors related to key areas of vessel safety and performance. These include: a wireless bilge alarm, high water alarm, temperature sensors, AIS probes, engine thermal camera, and deck ‘smart’ camera for activity recognition (AI) and keeping account of crew. IM will integrate these sensors and monitors with other sensor information pulled from any standard NMEA 2000 devices already onboard (e.g. engine, depth sounder, navigation instruments, etc.), and combine it all into one single online interface (real-time display, or ‘captains portal’) via open, encrypted APIs directly to/from the vessel. It is expected that this research will show significant near-term impacts for participating vessels from the new IoT tools that should improve vessel monitoring and performance; enhance communication and connectivity; and facilitate remote diagnostics and improved safety at sea. Longer term impacts will accrue after this type of VMS+ IoT solution is trialed, evaluated, and information about best use and practices is disseminated through this project; at which point, we expect the broader industry to begin adopting these technologies at scale from a variety of vendors who will likely come into this space. The FPSS and CFCRI will play critical roles in helping to translate this research into practice through a series of dedicated ‘Technology for Safety’ workshops.