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Dragutin Radobuljac, the Chief Electrical Engineer on Royal Caribbean Cruise Line’s mega cruise ship the Allure of the Seas, has described the new Kongsberg Information Management System (K-IMS) as a “Revolutionary upgrade,” with significant influence on vessel operations. K-IMS is a state-of-the-art, customised data management system that operates over a global, secure and highly scalable infrastructure.

K-IMS features a suite of applications within a single web portal providing high level vessel data access to engineers and management. The user interface, known as the IMS Portal, is available on board and on the RCCL office network in Miramar, Florida. K-IMS data is also accessed on board using tablets and is displayed on a large screen in the Engine Control Room on Allure.

“The Information Management System delivered to Allure is obviously a revolutionary upgrade in data storing and a handling application that has a significant influence on our day to day operation. It helps us to perform our daily duties and continue with smooth ship operation,” comments Dragutin Radobuljac.

K-IMS was installed during a significant upgrade to the existing Kongsberg Maritime K-Chief automation system on board. The new K-Chief on Allure is one of the most extensive ever installed by Kongsberg Maritime, consisting 76 Remote Control Units (RCUs) controlling over 40,000 Input/Output (IO) points. K-IMS replaces the exiting K-Chief History Station and as the data logging system of choice on board, will provide data from 21,000 I/O points (up from 14,500) and data storage for 7 years (up from 1 year). This provides RCCL with extensive data and statistics with which to improve vessel operational performance.

K-IMS provides the ability to review statistical data, condition based monitoring, alarms and events, and ship performance monitoring data. Condition Based maintenance on Allure provides a long term overview of the equipment performance and mechanical degradation, which supports preventative maintenance. Alarms and Events reporting provide the ability to review the most commonly repeating alarms and fix issues with equipment before they become emergencies.

According to Hans Ellingsen, Manager, Information Management Systems at Kongsberg Maritime, fuel efficiency was a key driver behind the installation of K-IMS: “The Chief Engineer requested a report which would show how much fuel was being consumed since noon the previous day. The report includes all the heavy consumers as line items so the data can be used to help with decisions about which consumers should be kept running and consuming power and which may be shut off. Consequently, the vessel can be operated at a lower fuel cost.”

The K-IMS solution on Allure is a triple redundant data access and storage system with servers located in three zones – two on board and one in a hosted cloud service. This configuration enables RCCL management to access the vessel’s data without having to use satellite communications, thereby saving on communication costs. A malware protection system to filter out any malicious attacks from the web or via USB on board is included whilst an admin server allows secure remote access to the vessel from authorised locations including the Kongsberg Maritime customer support team.

Kongsberg, February 20, 2014; Image: Wikipedia