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Frequently
Asked
Questions
We are always available to answer any questions you might have about METIS or the way METIS can be implemented in order to satisfy your specific business needs.
For your convenience we have gathered the most common questions we receive from our customers and provide the answer in order to get a clear idea about our solution.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch in case you need more indormation.
METIS Ship Connect is a robust data acquisition system designed by METIS in order to ensure that the shipping company has continuous and reliable data from the vessel that will be used for in-depth analysis to produce valuable, predictive and actionable insights.
The differentiating factor is that METIS Ship Connect is provided as a service which means that we do not sell just another equipment. On the contrary, we take care of the whole operation enabling you to focus on your core business.
METIS Ship Connect has received the prestigious Lloyd’s Register Type Approval Certificate for marine, offshore and industrial applications. Our customers can be confident that they are provided with a reliable platform conforming to recognized industry quality standards, International Conventions and Lloyd’s Register strictest testing procedures.
METIS Space is our cloud-based platform that hosts all the data collected from the METIS Ship Connect system, performs the intelligent analysis and provides functionality to the user. The functionality is grouped into three (3) Service Packs that enable shipping companies to roll out their digital transformation at their own pace according to their special needs. More info about METIS Space can be found here More info about the available METIS Service Packs can be found here
First of all, we need to ensure that we have enough data of good quality and significant frequency from the vessel. Therefore we need to install METIS Ship Connect, our robust data acquisition system on board. The exact configuration of the METIS Ship Connect system depends on the kind of analysis you want to get as well on the equipment which is installed onboard. We are proud to have the most extensive compatibility list. More info about the compatible equipment can be found here.
The next step is to choose the kind of analysis and the actual services you want to get from METIS. All the services are grouped in 3 Service Packs that enable shipping companies to deploy METIS at their own pace. Therefore you will have to select the service pack that suits best the needs of your company. More info about the services included in each Service Pack can be found here.
Additionally, we will need some info such as the vessel particulars, shop tests, sea trials, etc.
Each METIS Agent performs a specific task to serve a scope. Some examples are:
• The investigation of an abnormal vessel’s operation behavior
• The prediction of a future vessel’s operation behavior
• The prediction of a future effect of an external factor on the vessel’s operation
• The alert regarding an abnormal vessel’s operation behavior
• The alert regarding the influence of an external factor in the vessel’s operation
• The notification regarding the change of the vessel’s operation
• The scheduling of maintenance operations
• The planning of vessel’s operations and voyages
• The monitoring of vessel’s operations
• The analysis of vessel’s operations
• The optimization of vessel operations and performance
Some indicative notifications are:
Operation Status Event (start/stop vessel)
Bad weather Event (when a vessel is entering calm water conditions and bad water conditions accordingly)
The Customer can also get automated full report such as Noon Reports (including information on the operation of the vessels and the diagrams from AIS, wind, wave, swell, air dashboards) and Main Engine analysis reports (consisting all the diagrams of the M/E analysis dashboard).
The system can produce on-demand analysis or it can be configured to send notifications automatically on specific events for each user separately.
To enable automatic notifications, the user sets:
• the Rules and the Criteria for any event detection;
• the Reporting Format and period;
• the Communication Channels i.e. e-mail, Skype, Slack, SharePoint, Teams, SMS or other collaboration tools;
• the KPIs needed.
METIS keeps a schedule about who must be notified, for what event and in which way.
METIS affects all company’s activities and departments. The implementation of our system inside a Maritime Company gives the ability to quantify the additional costs that could be reduced, to understand the causes of these costs and to take proper actions to reduce them.
In fact, METIS helps on maximizing Time Charter Equivalent Revenues (TCER). METIS constantly monitors and analyses the data from the vessels, 24 / 7, 365 days a year, as opposed to taking unstructured or fragmented feedback i.e. a daily noon report or fragmentary manual indications.
Also, METIS platform allows you to monitor in detail the vessel’s performance compared to Charter Party Agreements. The Consumption/Speed curves of these agreements can be entered to the system allowing the Virtual Agents to monitor deviations from CP reference on a 24/7 basis.
If the personnel (onboard and onshore) cannot have a correct understanding of the vessel because the data are not satisfying, this can influence every aspect of running a vessel and a fleet, which could cost the business hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
The Hull Fouling analysis is implemented by METIS, processing the data acquired through the METIS Ship Connect devices installed onboard the vessel. The scope of the analysis is to calculate based on the Propulsion Power model in different weather conditions for a certain period, indicatively of 6 months, to then assess the results of the Hull and Propeller Fouling.
Hull & Propeller Fouling Agent accurately calculates the excess of Fuel Oil Consumption compared to shop tests and sea trials and how much of the “wasted” power loss was due to the wind, the rudder, the swell, the waves, the drift and (apparently) the fouling.
Customized Reports, addressing the specific requirements and procedures of any shipping company are always possible to be easily prepared and scheduled. The user can define the settings that must be met in order to receive alert & reports (for example, when the speed is above a limit or when there is a deviation from the reference lines)
Everyone within the company can be registered as a user and operate the system based on his/her specific needs. However, user, role or authority level access policies can be implemented if needed.
The METIS Development team constantly works on APIs to interconnect METIS Space with our customers’ ERP, CMS, Noon Reporting System and encapsulate their data.
METIS can also be trained to parse PDF, DOC, Excel and Text files or e-mail messages and extract data for further analysis like: crew reports, bunker analysis reports, oil analysis reports, charter party agreements, etc.
Furthermore, users can set values to any parameter through the Agents, like: instructed speed, oil price, destination port, ETA etc.
Within METIS Space, sophisticated predictive models powered by learning machines are implemented, for each vessel, to estimate many parameters (i.e. M/E or D/Gs fuel flow, M/E power, T/C RPM, scavenge air pressure, M/E sfoc, vessel speed, the M/E power based on the measured quantities, etc.). These learning machines are constantly trained and self-corrected/optimized to improve the estimation.
The installation time is very short. It does not require more than two days of work performed by two of our technicians. Most importantly we DO NOT require any involvement of the crew.
Our experienced engineers will come on board and perform the installation. The process is very fast and easy and can also be completed while navigating. This makes our service unique and extremely cost-effective.
Apart from the H/Q in Greece, we have local engineering teams certified to perform the installation in China and Korea.
METIS health monitoring system works across the entire flow chain. In the unlikely case, something happens to one of our devices, the backend system will send immediately an alarm to the crew, the IT department of the maritime company and to our support team. Additionally METIS WIC devices have adequate local storage to keep the data for a period of time.
No, you don’t. METIS Data Fusion Server has a storage capacity to save data for more than 6 months after the acquisition.
All the measurements and other information are transmitted to the METIS Ship Data Fusion system through a wireless network based on IEEE 802.15.4 at 2.4 GHz or alternatively 900 MHz. The WIC devices get, fetch and CLEAN the data from any equipment, instrument and sensor ON BOARD the vessels before any transmissions take place from the vessel to METIS cloud through the ship’s broadband connection. This way only essential information will be transmitted, avoiding huge extra-costs for telecommunications.
METIS MRV agent is responsible to keep a record for all the data related to the MRV. This way, it can create the reports needed from the regulation, as well as from the company. It is important to note that the main scope of this agent is to assure that all the involved people follow the procedures according to the standards required.
There are four categories of devices according to their interfaces:
- Any device or sensor with analog or digital output like pressure sensors, signal indicators, temperature sensors etc. The most common signal types are:
– Current 4-20mA
– Voltage 0-10V
– PT-100
– Open Collector pulses
- Any device or system with serial RS422/RS485 output, or Ethernet. These types of devices can be connected directly to METIS WIC unit. Control devices, torque meters, AMS provide such type of interfaces.
- Any device or system connected directly to the LAN of the ship. The Input Sockets of METIS Data Fusion can directly communicate to that type of equipment and collect the data.
- The METIS platform is not a closed system. It is a collaboration platform which interconnects any system or tool either on board or on shore. Navigation Equipment (such as autopilot, gyrocompass and rudder angle when the autopilot signals’ collection is not possible, speedlog, echosounder, anemometer, draft and inclination), Cargo Control, Cargo Operation, Main Engine Operation, Diesel Generator Operation, Boiler Operation, Fuel Oil Consumption, Alarm Monitoring System, etc., can be easily interconnected to METIS either to provide or to acquire information.
METIS WIC devices will retrieve data using a wireless network. The network is reliable and robust with low bandwidth and high noise immunity. The topology of the network is mesh and the maximum line of sight connection distance is 1.5 Km using 10mW transmitter and omnidirectional antennas. The network is self-healing and the coordinator selects a channel with the lowest noise to start a new network. The cover area can be expanded using the METIS Routers. Also, when needed we can get the signal on the wire in parallel with other instrument like ECDIS, this is possible because our system is provided with optical isolation in order to not create any interference with the vessels ‘equipment.
