JRCS to launch new vessel digital solutions

April 23, 2020

Expand lineup of digital solutions: infinity assist and infinity command

In May 2020, JRCS Co., Ltd. (1-2-14 Higashiyamato-machi, Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Chairman and President, JRCS Group CEO: Koichiro Kondo) began offering new digital solutions “infinity assist” and “infinity command” in order to help reduce the burden on crew members and improve further safe operation of ships, an issue facing the industry.

In April 2018, JRCS established a Digital Innovation LAB to promote the digital transformation of the marine and shipping industries. We have developed products to realize digital twins by utilizing digital technologies such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) and IoT (Intelligence of Things). In April 2019, we began offering “infinity training” that utilize MR (Mixed Reality) technologies, enabling all marine operators to participate in high-quality training sessions beyond the boundaries of time and location.

JRCS’s product delivery is based on agile development principles that emphasize continuous customer feedback during the development cycles and gather valuable user experience (UX) from the customer’s perspective. In addition, CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) tools and methods has firmly been established with the integration of the DevOps platform.

In terms of technology, we aim to become a leading company in the marine and shipping industry by adopting cutting-edge IT technologies such as cloud computing, machine learning, and edge devices. In infinity solutions, we are designing and developing products based on the enhancement of customer experience value (CX).

<Overview of Solutions>

1. infinity assist

Troubleshooting of ship equipment with infinity assist can reduce the burden on crew members and reform their work styles.
Crew members deal with sudden equipment problems in addition to operating ships safely on a day-to-day basis. The variety of equipment onboard is adding the burden of each and every crew member to maintain the equipment. Furthermore, there are serious problems, such as the shortage of personnel, lack of technical knowledge of advanced equipment, and difficulty in transferring skills to young crew members.
To reduce the burden on crew members on the frontline, JRCS provides solutions tailored to a diverse range of ships by integrating the knowledge and skills of experienced crew members and technicians who take into account the special circumstances of ships.

Summary: This is a troubleshooting support platform for ship-based equipment using tablets and HoloLens.

Targeted users: Ship crews and onshore workers

Function

Unified management of troubleshooting of onboard equipment independently managed by ship owners, management companies, ship manufacturers, etc.
Search functions of ship equipment technical information such as troubleshooting, manual and similar information
Registration function of vessels under your control

Characteristics: This is a solution with a new concept that enables users to share ship technology information and knowledge and solve problems when equipment fails.
Regardless of whether you’re a ship owner or a management company, all users can create and edit troubleshooting contents and make the troubleshooting grow better. By attaching data such as drawings and pictures, you can also find solutions with visual information.
In addition, the vessel, which is restricted by communication environment, can also be used offline by downloading the required troubleshooting contents online to tablets.
In the future, we will add functions to support remote maintenance and day-to-day operations, which are expected to grow in demand.

Benefits: By accumulating the knowledge and know-how of skilled technicians as data, even inexperienced crews can respond quickly from the occurrence of equipment problems to problem resolution, thereby reducing the burden on crew members.

Release: Release scheduled for the end of May 2020

infinity assist

2. infinity command

Computer vision-based situational awareness technologies fully support safe operation of ships.

Conventionally, operators need to visually recognize obstacles in the course of navigation and small ships/boats that cannot be recognized by navigation instruments; therefore, operators feel extremely stressed on routes where many vessels are concentrated, such as narrow waterways and congested ocean areas.
To overcome these difficulties, JRCS assists safe operation of ships by detecting and identifying obstacles and small ships/boats with computer vision techniques and aggregating the data.

Summary: Operators use tablets to recognize marine conditions based on images obtained from optical cameras and support safe operation of ships.

Targeted users: Ship operator

Function

Situational awareness of marine objects using computer vision
Map view
Annotation that records the information required for navigation

Characteristics: In order to assist ship operators with vessel operations, computer vision is implemented regardless of the day and night to detect the existence of small ships, bouys, and drifts that do not have AIS and notify the operators of the existence of such objects.
In addition, it has an annotation function that allows you to register the status of a traffic route or neighborhood on the map with an icon by simple operation, and it is possible to record necessary information on the navigation.
In the future, we plan to provide a function to predict the movements of other ships and obstacles on the navigation route and to propose an appropriate route for avoiding them if there is a possibility of an impact on the route of vessels. In addition, we aim to integrate all navigation instruments.