Fleet Data from Inmarsat, the world leader in global, mobile satellite communications has received Approval in Principle(AiP) from leading classification society Bureau Veritas. This is a major milestone for the maritime industry’s leading secure sensor data and Internet of Things(IoT) platform. Conditions of approval by Bureau Veritas verify that Fleet Data can be installed safely on board, without its operation affecting existing navigation, safety and radio communication systems.
The bandwidth-inclusive platform allows ship owners and managers to take control of sensor data collected on board, pre-process, extract and aggregate it in cloud-based storage to be exploited by the operator’s own decision-making software or third party applications. Fleet Data is available via Fleet Xpress and soon to be rolled out to Inmarsat FleetBroadband users.
“Bureau Veritas is an innovator in maritime digitalisation,” said Jean-François Segretain, Technical Director, Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore. “Granting this AiP to Fleet Data offers powerful evidence of our strategy to lead the way when it comes to supporting the technologies that will truly transform our industry and to provide the required confidence in users and stakeholders.”
The Fleet Data IoT platform draws on different sources for data, including onboard sensors, the ship’s voyage data recorder(VDR) or the Integrated Automation System. Data is pre-processed and transferred ashore by satellite connection. Users access a secure online dashboard that is virtually connected via Application Program Interfaces(APIs) to the analytic, monitoring and management tools available through the IoT.
“Securing approval demonstrates that the maritime industry’s impartial standard bearers on safety, security and the environment identify Fleet Data as supportive of their objectives,” says Stefano Poli, Vice President Business Development, Inmarsat Maritime. “The launch of Fleet Data indicated that the world’s leading maritime satcoms supplier had also developed the industry’s first sensor agnostic platform to unleash IoT-based vessel performance gains. This approval verifies that Fleet Data can be installed onboard any ship without the need for further approval, certification or testing of any existing system and means it is safe to install.”
Poli emphasised that the power of Fleet Data can be enabled via any suitably-equipped data-logging device that benefits from continuous connectivity. “As a bandwidth-inclusive service, Fleet Data is also available to subscribers without additional airtime cost, whether they use the solution to enhance operational ship efficiency or to benchmark data across an entire fleet.”