Verification and Validation of Intelligent Helm (iHelm) for Electric and Hybrid Vessels

Sustainability of marine environments is one of the major UN goals for transforming the world. Electrification is as a major solution for emission reduction in marine segment. However, electrification in marine environments encounter different types of difficulties, related to operational challenges, compared to on-land applications: range anxiety, re-training the crew and health monitoring of the powertrain.

The current project will develop an intelligent support system for electric and hybrid ferries based on our current solution, iHelm, for diesel powertrains. The solution will provide total expected energy consumption per trip, best operational combination to reach the destination and health monitoring of the system.

The results of this project should provide an important step forward in making electric powertrains "1st customer choice" by mitigating the operator's concerns, hence facilitating the journey toward greenhouse emission reduction goals of 2030 and 2045.