AUSTAL PARTNERS WITH FRED. OLSEN, S.A. ON NEXT GENERATION MARINELINK SMART TECHNOLOGY ROLLOUT

Media release
21 May 2019

AUSTAL PARTNERS WITH FRED. OLSEN, S.A. ON NEXT GENERATION MARINELINK SMART TECHNOLOGY ROLLOUT

AUSTAL (ASX: ASB) and Fred. Olsen, S.A. have partnered for the final testing and rollout of Austal’s next generation MARINELINK-Smart technology.

Austal’s MARINELINK is the industry leading technology in integrated monitoring, alarm and control systems for high-speed ships. MARINELINK has been providing real time, on-board control and monitoring functionality for vessel systems for more than twenty years to aid effective decision making on the water, or at port, to improve vessel efficiency and safety.

The next generation of MARINELINK, MARINELINK-Smart, expands upon this to provide live shore-side and on-board advice to ship’s crew and data analytics to increase operational and maintenance efficiencies and passenger comfort.

The new MARINELINK-Smart utilises machine learning, artificial intelligence and internet of things technology to create an adaptive and predictive operational performance management system. The system provides the vessel’s captain with the best information in real time to increase the vessel’s operational performance. This includes providing advice on motion control, trim, speed and route planning. Advice is tailored to the loading, sea state and other factors specific to a particular vessel’s operations. The system enables savings in fuel consumption whilst also improving the seakeeping of the vessel and decreasing the rates of seasickness among passengers.

“Austal is the world’s largest designer and builder of high speed aluminium vessels. We have always had to deliver highly efficient ships to achieve the demanding speed and fuel consumption requirements of our customers, so operational efficiency has always been very important to us,” said Austal CEO David Singleton.

“Building on our unique knowledge of high-speed craft, our Technology Development team has created a vessel performance optimisation system that fundamentally understands and reflects the operation of these vessels in a way that hasn’t been possible up until now.

“We have a number of Technology Development teams working across multiple initiatives to ensure our vessels continue to redefine what is possible and set the standard in next generation technology. We have been working with the University of Western Australia, ship operators and technology partners on our MARINELINK-Smart platform and the technology is now being trialled throughout the Fred. Olsen Express fleet. As our biggest commercial client, Fred. Olsen S.A. is the perfect partner for the rollout of this next generation technology.

“We are currently building them two new trimarans which will have the new systems built into the vessels and will be the first vessels to have MARINELINK Smart designed into the vessel. We are very excited to see these vessels enter operation and for the passengers to receive the benefit of our advanced vessel management system” he said.

Iván Fernandez, Technical Manager of Fred. Olsen Express, said, “We know that our existing trimaran is our High Speed Ferry which provides the best comfort to our passengers. With the implementation of MARINELINK-Smart we will get a better understanding and control of such comfort in all our fleet, including the two new trimarans that we are currently building at Austal.
We are looking forward to seeing our new vessels in action and we are especially excited about our passengers, who will be able to experience the important improvements that this technology brings to our trimarans.”

Austal’s MARINELINK-Smart will be retrofitted across the Fred. Olsen, S.A. fleet, ensuring the most advanced comfort controls for passenger comfort across the company’s fleet of vessels.

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