LR has awarded Furuno Hellas with ‘Digital Twin Approved Certification’ for its ground-breaking HermAce monitoring platform and Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) digital twin as an alternative to onboard annual VDR performance testing, according to LR's release.
The verification, in line with LR’s ShipRight Digital Compliance Framework, was conducted in partnership with The Alan Turing Institute, AQ Live simulating over 1,000 normal and adverse test cases in a software-in-the-loop test environment including dozens of physical fault-seeding tests to establish that the VDR digital twin can monitor a physical VDR under normal, abnormal and failure operating conditions. The certification awarded by LR is the first independent verification of digital twin technology in the maritime industry.
Furuno was previously awarded Approval in Principle (AiP) for its voyage data recorder digital twin for HermAce, this was the first verification review carried out by a classification society of a digital twin specifically designed for this purpose.
First movers in digitalisation will be able do so with certainty of performance expectations and the associated benefits of a simpler and quicker compliance procedure that the collaboration between LR and ATI will bring. LR’s recent report, ‘Artificial Intelligence in Maritime - a learning curve’, outlines how AI has the potential to revolutionise maritime operations and create significant advantages for the companies that embrace it.