By CCS R&D Center

In recent years, China Classification Society (CCS) has been accelerating the process of digital transformation

to comply with the general trend of digital and intelligent development of ships, actively promoting the construction of digital survey and verification service capabilities, and using the cutting-edge theoretical research results as a key technical support to make the technological breakthrough and  carry  out  the  practical  exploration  in  the  field  of safety  assurance technology, thus gradually developing a new capability to provide safety assurance services for the industry under the background of digitalization  and intelligence .

Reliability study and application of ship equipment and system

With the continuous development of domestic supporting equipment and the improvement of the ship intelligence, the application of new energy under the low-carbon and zero-carbon strategy has led to the emergence of new equipment and systems, and increasing attention is paid by the industry to the reliability of ship equipment and systems . Regardless of an intelligent ship or a green ship, the scenario awareness system,autonomous navigation system, green fuel power system and other equipment and components with sufficient reliability is an important guarantee for maintaining a low failure rate of the system and the safe operation of intelligent and green ships .

Data is the foundation and premise of reliability study and application . The digital transformation of the ship industry not only imposes higher requirements for reliability study, but also provides favorable conditions for obtaining the reliability data conveniently and quickly . CCS has initiated the study on the collection and analysis methods of reliability data information,to build a digital equipment test, operation and maintenance database and develop the reliability evaluation and prediction capabilities based on applied statistical methods, thus providing a solid data foundation for the safe and reliable operation of ship equipment .

Study and application of ship communication reliability evaluation

The communication system, the neural network of an intelligent ship in a digital application scenario, is a key information channel connecting the equipment terminal and the decision-making end . Once the system fails or is faulty, it will directly lead to the "downtime" state or the wrong decision,posing a huge threat to ship safety . Therefore, ensuring the communication reliability during ship operation is an urgent issue to be handled in the industry . To this end, the engineering requirements for formulating the technical standards concerning the reliability of intelligent ship communication have been specified .

The traditional communication reliability study mainly focused on the fields of telephone network, data network and computer network, but less involved to the field of civil ships, especially the intelligent ships . With the continuous improvement of the development of ship digitalization,intelligence and networking in the future, more and more communication equipment and facilities will be accessed to the ship system, to realize the internal and external information exchange .

CCS  has  been  studying  the  reliability  evaluation technology of intelligent ship communication, and accelerating the development of technical capabilities that  serve the construction, operation and maintenance, evaluation and survey of intelligent ship communication systems, thereby ensuring that the  ship communication  system operates  stably and reliably, and supporting the ship safety under the intelligent and unmanned conditions to the greatest extent .

Study and Application of Reliability Evaluation of Ship Intelligent Algorithm

Ship intelligence is not only reflected in ship functions such as the intelligent navigation, intelligent hull, intelligent machinery, intelligent energy efficiency, intelligent cargo and the intelligent operation  and maintenance, but  also gradually penetrates into the early stages of ship design and construction, including the optimization of the ship design and construction process and empowering manufacturing, so as to improve the production efficiency, economy and safety . Intelligent algorithm, one of the core technical elements of ship intelligence, ensures that the algorithm is designed, deployed, applied and implemented in a trustworthy state, which is the key to realize the algorithm reliability .

CCS has been fully aware of the potential risks resulting from the above problems to the safe application and future development of intelligent ships, and has been studying the reliability evaluation technology of intelligent algorithms . With reference to the technical characteristics and application scenarios of the main intelligent algorithms of the shipboard system, CCS has analyzed the risk factors that may affect the safety and reliability of the application of intelligent algorithms on  ships . Thus,  a reliability evaluation  system for  sub -characteristics was constructed, including the objective-task realization, stability, scalability, robustness, fault tolerance, and recoverability of the intelligent algorithm . Facing the different stages of intelligent algorithm design, development and operation, CCS has put forward the reliability assessment suggestions and technical requirements and developed the technical  service capabilities concerning the intelligent algorithm reliability assessment, to improve the safety and reliability of intelligent algorithm applications in the industry, thereby avoiding the technical risks due to the intelligent algorithm and strategy application errors, failure and out-of- control, and facilitating to realize the safe, reliable and credible application of intelligent algorithms in the shipping industry .

Ship digital safety management and emergency response technology

With the help of advanced digital technology and risk assessment tools, the possible risks during ship operation can be effectively identified, and various emergency plans can be formulated in advance . Thus, the digital emergency plans have gradually become the focus of study on safety management and emergency decision-making under the conditions of ship digitalization and intelligence .

In the digital emergency plan, the  advanced digital information technologies such as the geographic information technology, global positioning technology, remote sensing technology, 3D image display technology and databases are used to convert the traditional textual plans into a series of emergency operation procedures that can be dynamically deduced as the emergency evolves according to the emergency handling process, based on the pre-set accident scenario and the instant information of the event course .

High -level  intelligence  and real -timeliness  are the development direction of the digital emergency plan in the future . CCS has carried out pre-study and exploration on the digital emergency plan technology under the background of digitalization and intelligence of ships, and developed a reasoning machine for emergency response using the digitalization and intelligence technologies . Furthermore, the possible risks in each stage of typical ship safety accidents and the emergency response measures to be taken are analyzed . On this basis, a highly intelligent emergency response expert system is formed . Combined with the technologies such as accurate real-time monitoring of emergencies and parameter extraction, the real-time simulation of the evolution process of emergencies and the real-time dynamic tracking of various emergency resources can be realized, and thus the evolution direction of ship safety accidents and the effect of emergency response can be accurately judged, to provide scientific,accurate and timely technical supports for decision-making to effectively respond to the ship safety accidents, reduce the risks, and ensure the waterborne transportation safety .