Wärtsilä Voyage, part of the technology group Wärtsilä, has today unveiled its new demonstrator and innovation vessel, AHTI, at the SMM shipping exhibition in Hamburg. The new vessel is said to offer customers the chance to experience Wärtsilä Voyage and partner technology in real-life sea conditions, which can be difficult and costly to recreate in a laboratory environment.
Previously a German government fishery patroller, AHTI was chosen for retrofit technology installations to prove what is already technologically possible for the current fleet, and to create a platform for further innovation and development, Wärtsilä said.
The creation of a floating R&D facility is also expected to help Finnish marine technology company to reduce the cost and time barriers associated with real-life tests, returning meaningful results at a much lower risk and cost base than going into full-scale testing directly. The vessel also creates a first-party resource where customers and technology partners can collaborate, the company noted.
In the first half of 2022, AHTI’s bridge was upgraded with several products from Wärtsilä Voyage’s portfolio and with on-the-market partner technology products from OSCAR and Drynet. The vessel will also soon be fitted with a Wärtsilä Voyage SceneScan position reference system, a SmartMove system for semi-autonomous ship movement, as well as remote control and satellite connectivity onboard – creating “a bridge to the highly automated, connected, situationally aware and data-enabled future for maritime.”
Speaking at the unveiling of AHTI, Hendrik Bußhoff, head of product – autonomous systems at Wärtsilä Voyage, said: “Technology designed to solve the industry’s biggest challenges must be tested in situations that come as close as possible to real-life scenarios. However, we understand that real-world testing is costly and time-consuming. Trialling new equipment almost always means testing it on a customer ship which can often bring with it a lot of obligations and questions about documentation, schedules, data ownership and compliance. This is why we invested in AHTI. We now have a resource that will shorten time-to-market, enable us to fail fast and innovate quicker, and compare and understand different technologies outside of controlled environments.”
Sean Fernback, president of Wärtsilä Voyage, added: “In the last few years, the maritime industry has recognised the benefits of digitalisation, and how it can help organisations tackle the very biggest challenges that the sector faces. AHTI provides a powerful tool for testing the capabilities and benefits of a tech-enabled vessel and provides us with an environment in which we can see the future, today, on our terms.”
