System warns if ship is in danger of losing containers

In collaboration with a start-up, a Harling shipping company has developed a system that monitors on a ship whether containers become unbalanced and can fall overboard.

The system warns if it goes the wrong way. “Then the captain and crew can choose a different course or speed, for example,” says developer Joris Brouwer Omrop Fryslân.

In the night of 1 to 2 January 2019, the MSC Zoe lost 342 fully loaded containers in the North Sea, not far from the Dutch Wadden Islands, during a severe storm. More than a year later, in February 2020, seven containers fell overboard at the much smaller OOCL Rauma of shipping company JR Shipping from Harlingen. That was also at the Wadden Islands.

The Harling shipping company decided to investigate whether there could be a system that warns the skipper. Two researchers from the Netherlands Maritime Research Institute set to work, set up a start-up and are now coming up with the new system. As of today, it is used on two ships.

“The system monitors a ship’s movements in real time. This information can be updated up to twenty times per second,” says Joris Brouwer. By combining movement, acceleration and weight, the forces on containers can be calculated.

A sensor will be installed in the wheelhouse, which will act as the ship’s balance organ. The software works without internet. “We only need one sensor. Thanks to the cargo traffic jam, we know where the containers are and we can use that to calculate,” says co-developer Michiel Gunsing.

The system can review up to an hour of data. Brouwer: “If the waves swell due to a storm, the data shows how that builds up.”

In addition to the water and the wind, the method of loading is also important. Because it makes a difference whether there are high or low stacks of containers on a ship and whether they are heavy or light. “Such calculations are far too complicated for humans to do themselves,” says Brouwer. The system must become a kind of ‘sixth sense’ on the ship.

“It’s just profit,” says Ellen Kuipers of the Wadden Association enthusiastically. She does point out that the warning system has now been introduced at two feeders from JR Shipping. These are relatively small container ships that are used to supply large ships such as the MSC Zoe. Kuipers: “I am curious whether the system is easy to realize for ultra-large vessels.”

Developer Michiel Gunsing thinks it should be possible in principle. “Although with large ships you still have some trouble with distortion. You should probably have a number of sensors there to measure those distortions.”