Bespoke Application Development for Carbon Trust
- Commissioned by The Carbon Trust this mobile app uses smartphone sensors to measure the motion and performance of vessels. A Vessel Motion Monitoring App (VMMA)
- Designed for use in the offshore wind industry to improve crew safety and comfort when transiting to and transferring to offshore windfarms.
- Performance data recorded from hardware sensors is pushed to an API, also built as part of this project, for recording and analysis.
What They Say
“Enigma have developed a high-quality app from a complex set of requirements. They have been proactive in the development phase and we are looking forward to rolling out the app.”
Dan Kyle Spearman, Manager Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) Programme, Carbon Trust
The Ambition
The Carbon Trust's Offshore Wind Accelerator (OWA) program aims to drive down the costs of offshore wind energy and establish industry best practices. As part of this initiative, the Carbon Trust recognised the potential of modern smartphones' sensors to assist in monitoring and measuring the motion performance of crew transfer vessels.
This is particularly significant in two key aspects: the transit and transfer of crew via small vessels to offshore wind turbines. The idea is that utilising mobile devices for motion monitoring would offer a more cost-effective solution for small vessels compared to installing expensive vessel motion monitoring systems (VMMS). This approach would democratise access to VMMS-type data, benefiting all involved parties.
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What We Did
We developed a mobile app capable of extracting raw data from a smartphone's sensors to analyze vessel motion. This involves gathering data from the device's accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, and GPS antenna. Subsequently, the data is processed and presented in a format tailored for vessel operators, including skippers and engineers.
Given that this mirrors the functionality of full-scale Vessel Motion Monitoring Systems (VMMS) found on larger vessels, the industry has coined this innovation a Vessel Motion Monitoring App (VMMA).
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Initial Research and Development
When tackling innovative projects like this, where we're venturing into uncharted territory, thorough research and development (R&D) are always a priority. Upon receiving the request from The Carbon Trust, we immediately initiated R&D efforts. Our first step was to validate the initial theory by crafting a prototype to assess sensor frequency and accuracy.
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Mobile App Development
Due to the project's requirement of developing mobile apps for both iOS and Android within budget constraints, we opted for the Ionic App Development Framework. Over time, this framework has evolved, offering an expanding array of features with no restrictions on accessing telemetry data from device sensors.
Our primary target platform for this project is Android, primarily due to its openness and affordability compared to iOS. Research also indicates that Android devices often provide more accurate and frequent sensor data. Nevertheless, we didn't want to exclude a significant portion of mobile device users, so we also developed an iOS version of the app.
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Processing Data
Working alongside The Carbon Trust and Marine Specialists Seaspeed, we employed a range of calculations and algorithms to analyse data from the sensors of mobile devices. This data was then transformed into valuable information for vessel operators. By harnessing data and merging it with the six degrees of freedom of vessel motion—pitch, heave, roll, surge, sway, and yaw—we were able to gain insights into vessel performance through the accelerations recorded on each axis.
Data Visualisation
The processed data is visualised in a number of different ways throughout the app, predominantly this is in time series graphs but it is also plotted onto maps. Live data can be monitored as it is being created but previous performance can also be viewed using longer view graphs. All data is saved to the device and there is also an option to upload it to a web based portal for further processing and visualisation options.
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