R&D Projects
At Metis, innovation is more than a strategic objective; it is part of our DNA and the driving force behind everything we do. We believe that the future of shipping lies at the intersection of advanced technology and environmental stewardship.
Our active and consistent involvement in high-profile EU and Nationally funded R&D projects serves as clear evidence of our commitment to pioneering the next generation of maritime solutions.
By collaborating with leading academic institutions and industry pioneers, we translate cutting-edge research into practical, intelligent tools that promote digital transformation and sustainability.
The following are some of the projects that highlight our ongoing efforts to push the boundaries of what is possible, ensuring a smarter, greener, and more efficient maritime industry for the years to come.
Smart Scheduler (ROTA)
The Smart Scheduler (ROTA) project concerns the development of an intelligent route planning system, designed to optimize the daily operations of Service Operation Vessels (SOVs) serving offshore wind farms. The system has been designed with the valuable collaboration of ESVAGT.
Smart Scheduler leverages high‑frequency vessel and environmental data, captured through METIS IoT infrastructure, inertial measurement units, and weather forecasts, to help captains and site managers create safe, efficient, and reliable maintenance schedules. The system evaluates vessel performance, sailing conditions, DP workability, and operational constraints such as gate availability, wave direction, safety margins (e.g., Drift Off vs. Drift On), technician movements, crane lifts, and time‑restricted tasks.
By combining machine‑learning models with operational rules and safety priorities, Smart Scheduler produces optimized work plans, ideal routing inside the wind farm, and accurate estimates of time, fuel consumption, and workability.
Its goal is to ensure that technicians are deployed and retrieved safely, routes minimize unnecessary transit, vessel position and heading match environmental conditions, and buffer time is included to accommodate real‑world deviations.
It supports CSV import/export for seamless integration with client planning tools and can run both in the cloud and on a standalone onboard server.
Overall, Smart Scheduler transforms high‑frequency operational data into actionable daily plans, enabling safer, more predictable, and more energy‑efficient SOV operations.
Implementing Agency: Information Society of the Hellenic Republic.
The research project is implemented within the framework of the “Development of Digital Products and Services” program of the Recovery and Resilience Fund.
Project budget: €1,326,000.00
Funding: €494,977.50
AMSA
The purpose of the AMSA research project is to design, develop, pilot and evaluate a reliable, low-cost and energy-independent system for measuring the stress and load of metal structures, which can be installed and operated in hard-to-reach places on ships or similar transport systems loads (containers, trains, etc.).
The device will draw energy from the ship’s movements and wirelessly transmit stress and strain measurements to the control point. For this purpose, an innovative method of assessing the structural integrity of metal sheets through non-contact stress analysis and stress assessment in steels with magnetic stimulation (STEHEMON)1 will be evaluated.
At the same time, hardware and software subsystems will be designed and developed to create a prototype system, suitable for evaluation in real conditions (TRL 6).
The decarbonisation targets of the shipping sector by IMO are extremely challenging and require active measures as soon as possible. ENGIMMONIA comes with solutions that focus on the “source of emissions” to achieve the decarbonisation targets in multiple waves, according to the global introduction of alternative fuels, e.g. ammonia fuel for shipping.
To reach these ambitions and accelerate the transition towards green shipping, ENGIMMONIA relies on a flexible approach, combining a carbon-free fuel like ammonia with energy efficiency and other measures: (1) ammonia dual-fuel engines for the ship propulsion and electricity generation, (2) waste heat recovery solutions based on ORC and adsorption chiller for the production of electricity and space cooling respectively, (3) energy/heat management including any other efficiency measures and renewables, and (4) advanced operational practices including the energy management tools.
The overall objective of ENGIMMONIA is to develop and test flexible technologies at TRL over 5 that greatly reduce GHG emissions from all kind of long distance shipping and reduce the fuel consumption, and thus ensure their sustainability.
These technological innovations are combined and integrated in the ENGIMMONIA polygeneration energy hub towards the ships’ digitalisation. They are further developed, optimised, and integrated in the ship environment with the final aim to approach a complete decarbonisation of the shipping sector in the long term, while ensuring their wide acceptance and adoption by all relevant stakeholders.
Vepit
The aim of the project is the development of an integrated system of measurement, recording and analysis, in real time, of the energy footprint of ship operation. Based on MITIS’ platform of intelligent wireless maritime data collectors, a system fully adapted to the project’s objective will be developed.
The system will continuously record those parameters which, with the appropriate analysis, will capture the energy efficiency of all the ship’s energy-intensive systems in the various operating conditions.
