LR has awarded Furuno Hellas with ‘Digital Twin Approved Certification’ for its ground-breaking HermAce monitoring platform and Voyage Data Recorder digital twin as an alternative to onboard annual VDR performance testing.

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.

Joseph Morelos, LR’s Maritime AI Applications Innovation Leader, said:
“LR is delighted to award Digital Twin Approved Certification to Furuno for its HermAce Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) digital twin, the first independent verification for digital twin technology across the maritime industry. LR is committed to support maritime digitalisation journey by creating analytical and test environments that prove the functionality and capabilities of digital twin technology. Building trust that a digital twin can do what it claims to do is key to unlocking operational benefits such as failure avoidance, inspection, maintenance, survey and test credits.”

Theodoros Katemidis, Managing Director, Furuno Hellas, said:
“A great achievement which is the outcome of close cooperation and the professionalism of LR, The Alan Turing institute and Furuno Hellas teams.”

Nick Stavrou, Manager of R&D Center of Furuno Hellas added:
“We are so proud that we have successfully conducted the assessment of HermAce’s VDR Digital Twin against VDR remote annual performance testing. The outcome of the assessment was accompanied by all teams (LR, Furuno and The Alan Turing Institute) expertise to deliver a solution that will enable remote APT service engineers at the shore to inspect the VDR at the vessel. Furuno Hellas, with the support of our Headquarters in Japan, is an enabler of this innovative solution which brings new technologies to the shipping industry”

Dr Andrew Duncan, Data Centric Engineering Group Leader at The Alan Turing Institute said: “We’re pleased to contribute to this important project, helping the LR to verify and ensure the rigor of this work. The Turing has already made great advances in Digital Twin research thanks to our Data Centric Engineering programme funded by Lloyds Register Foundation along with the Turing’s AI for Science and Government Research Programme.  We’re looking forward to continuing to work closely together to advance research in this area.”

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.