(ROTTERDAM, Netherlands) — RH Marine is performing more service remotely using its Remote Assistance solution. Vessels remain operational and it results in cost savings compared to the usual service provision. In addition, Remote Assistance also offers a solution if vessels are not allowed to receive external parties on board, or if service engineers of RH Marine are unable to travel due to coronavirus measures.
Normally, engineers or people from RH Marine come on board vessels to solve malfunctions, update software, or for sea trials and other testing. Due to the corona measures this is not always possible. Vessel owners prefer to have as few external people on board as possible, countries have closed their borders, or airlines do not fly. To still help customers quickly and at all times and to keep vessels operational, RH Marine now uses Remote Assistance more often, especially when software settings updates are required due to changes in surrounding hardware or added sensors.
“That has to be solved quickly and there is not always time to fly in an engineer,” said consultant Ehab El Amam of RH Marine.
RH Marine has built in a router with a hardware key in its onboard system that keeps the master in control of starting the connection. When the hardware key is turned on, the router is powered and connects via a secured connection over the internet, eventually to the support engineer’s computer. In this way, RH Marine can remotely connect to all software systems and analyze problems quickly and safely, by either advising the crew what to do, or changing software settings if required.
In addition to time savings, total service costs can also be reduced by using this new technology. Normally, service engineers have an average of two to three days travel time to and from a vessel. With Remote Assistance, these costs can be canceled.
“These are the direct costs you save, but the real savings are in the time that the vessel is inoperative," El Amam said. "For example, DP vessels are not allowed to sail if there is a problem with the DP system. Mostly large offshore vessels are rented for thousands of dollars per day. If you can prevent such a vessel from being inoperative for single days via Remote Assistance, then it could save tons.”
Even the dynamic positioning system of a superyacht in Seattle in the United States has been set up via Remote Assistance. Normally a DP engineer comes on board for the necessary tests and adjusts the software parameters. Now there was another engineer on board who was in contact with the DP engineer in the Netherlands via Remote Assistance. He remotely adjusted the vessel.
For more information, visit www.rhmarine.com.
