WP-leader Anders Rydlinger
Ander Rydlinger is the leader of the Prepare Ships Work Package number 5 and works as VP at Telko with Business and product development. Anders has a solid background from the Maritime area where he started as a Naval Officer and spent over 20 years at sea.
– After this I worked 20 years at Transas as Sales Manager, Managing Director, Sales & Marketing Director, Product Director with the main focus on product development. So in all 30 years’ experience in development of navigation solution with focus on ECDIS that also includes applications using AIS-technologies (Automatic Identification Solutions), Says Anders.
Telko decided to join the Prepare Ships project as it was a small project with well defined, achievable goals. The setup of partners was also well organised with specific tasks and contributions, and it was clear that all partners complemented each other in a good way.
The purpose of the Work Package
From the Telko perspective the purpose is to be part of and contribute to the development of new applications using VDES. This new technology offers better positioning and extended possibilities when it comes to satellite navigation.
– With AIS in the bottom we now have VDES with 150 times the bandwidth. This opens for sending huge amount of information via VDES and Satellites, and in the end, with better situation awareness among the operators, we get a safer sea traffic, says Anders.
Work package 5 is the engine of this whole project. It has the role of system integrator, merging all the different solutions from all the WPs together. And in the end making it presentable for the users.
– We collect sensor data from the project members, like Anavs and Lantmäteriet as well as other systems. The predictor is hosted in our ECDIS and communicate via SAAB’s VDES, says Anders.
The importance of EU support
The European Union offer global mobility of consumables and it is important that the EU has a strong economic body that can support development projects like Prepare Ships.
– With the possibilities of supporting projects that works over the borders, we have the possibility to facilitate the development of solutions that helps humanity. If we had not been in the EU, we would not have had this opportunity, which would have hampered development, says Anders.
The working process
The work of WP05 has been a close cooperation with many of the other WPs.
RISE
The work started out scanning the market for predictors on the market. Their functionality and success were investigated, and they were evaluated.
– The team manage to spot directly what we needed and had a good idea about what we wanted to accomplish, says Anders.
SAAB
The team started out with meetings around protocols for sending predictor information between ships using VDES and ECDIS. After some meetings they arrived at a conclusion.
– We still have a challenge around safe areas. The digital standardised sea charts are not sufficient and the new standard, S100 is delayed. This is a bit of a disappointment that means that we cannot automate no-go areas which was one of the goals, says Anders.
Due to the pandemic and the restrictions, the team is behind schedule as travelling has been impossible. Still, they see no problems to reach the goals with the project. The product development and the testing are totally in phase.
– In June 2021, we conducted the pre-tests by installing the system on all boats to make sure that ECDIS was speaking correctly with all units. In August we sucessfully conducted the first test campaign with satisfactory results and sorted out several identified software bugs and some hardware connection issues. We are now evaluating these results and will continue to develop a new user interface, says Anders.