By Wu Xiaofeng

Standardization helps the marine industry cope with intelligence era challenges

By Wu Xiaofeng

At present, the rapid development of information and communication technology not only brings a profound revolution to the industrial world, but also affects each people's life and work, “Being intelligent” has become the common subject faced by all walks of life.

Judging from the point of focus of the relevant technology of intelligence by the international shipping and shipbuilding industry and the academia, before 2010, the focus is relatively concentrated on the CAX technology application, ship design and construction, means of information during operation, greenhouse gas emission reduction technology etc. Later, with the accelerated development of ICT technology, the focus began to transfer to networking technology, big data, artificial intelligence, decision support system, energy management, product lifecycle management, and more attention be paid to the integration of basic information technology and system integration management technology.

At present, Europe, United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries are carrying out intelligent shipping and intelligent ship research projects to promote new technology validation, application and upgrading of the industry. Among them, the development of new standardsis the focus of project support. For example, in 2012 Japan launched the “Smart Ship Application Platform”(SSAP) project, which aims to establish the standardized way for ship and shore side to get the ship equipment data. SSAP project has set clear strategy of international standards and technology research and development in the design stage. In addition to international standards, there are organizations which on their own initiatives start the study of group standards. For example, in 2007, some ship owners, ship equipment manufacturers and system integrators in Europe organized, developed, maintained and promoted Shipdex, which is a standardized protocol for electronic data transmission between the owner and manufacturer. At present, nearly 90 companies in 20 countries have been registered as Shipdex users. Although Shipdex is not official standard, the positive role and inf l uence of Shipdex in the industry as a group standard can not be ignored.

In Chinese shipbuilding industry, it has become a common understanding and wide practice that standardization is the tool to promote the development of enterprises. In recent years, shipbuilding industry has made series of achievements in different levels of standardization work. At present, the global shipping industry is undergoing remodeling under the inf l uence of many factors. Adhering to the standardization and enhancing standard supply is an important tool in this process. Especially, at the juncture of Chinese industry marching toward 4.0 era, through collaboration and complement of multi-level standard, standardized tools could further stimulate the intelligent enabled function and multiplier effect, help shipping and shipbuilding industry seize the commanding point in the world.