IT and communications for the deep sea commercial shipping sector

RFID Tags, From Granny's Bloomers to Seafarer Safety?

Department stores attach radio frequency Identity, RFID, tags on their goods to ensure that, for instance, their DVD players go out the front door by way of the cash register rather than tucked down some light fingered granny’s bloomers. New versions of that technology have much to offer the maritime industry.

RFID tags contain tiny radio transmitters that can be picked up by a reader. Research being funded, among others, by BP, will see smarter versions appearing in the workplace that can, for instance, monitor work and rest periods, the amount of vibration a worker is exposed to by machinery and ensure that these remain within accepted limited for health. For seafarers, however, these little tell-tales could mean the difference between life and death.

New generation tags can be networked together and detected using the sort of wi-fi technology now common in offices coffee shops, restaurants, bars, and hotels.

In an environment of limited domain, like a ship, the ability to track the location of people and objects accurately can present a number of safety benefits.

The simplest scenario is man overboard. Unless the casualty is lucky enough to be seen falling off the ship it can be hours before he or she is reported missing, as happened in a recent case involving a seafarer on a cruise ship, the Celebrity Constellation. Searches began after the ship docked in Port Everglades and he didn’t show up for a muster. Crew members recalled last seeing him at 5am on the morning of Monday, 18th February. The US Coast Guard called off the 1,500 square mile search on the next evening but restarted when video surfaced showing that the seafarer had actually fallen overboard at 3.25am on the Monday morning. He hasn’t been found.

Had that seafarer been wearing an RFID tag his falling overboard could have set off an alarm and a search started within minutes rather than several hours later.

When it comes to confined space incidents, smart RFID technology worn by seafarers and attached to equipment, could prove even more useful. Not only could it reveal when someone enters a potentially hazardous space but whether they’re wearing the right equipment, whether someone is on watch at the entrance to the space and whether appropriate rescue equipment is in place. Conceivably this could be an entirely automated system.

A shortfall in the present ’safety systems’ is that they rely on form-filling, an activity seen as an end in itself rather than a means of safety working. Increased training and education will not, by themselves, resolve the enormous problems of confined space entry deaths. Competency assessment certainly will help but companies appear to be reluctant to take that step.

RFID tag technology could fill the gap and help keep seafarers alive.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jason Copland on March 7, 2008 at 8:31

This is an interesting thread. I personally see a wide range of usages for RFID from the excellent idea of person- tracking as in the thread OP but also it could be very useful for tracking of cargo movements and accumulations. The technology to do this already exists, developed by Lockheed Martin and now available for commercial use, there are already some companies offering this service but what is needed is a push from other sources to make it happen. I work in the marine insurance business and would welcome wider use of RFID as a means of monitoring my insurance exposures and accumulations.

Permalink Reply by Carl Bennett on March 27, 2008 at 17:28

We did a scoping study on this last year. The biggest obstacle we found was the US Coast Guard. While the US is the biggest container importer the USCG are the most likely source of mandatory tracking requirements. Until they make a move on this one way or another there is a big disincentive for anyone to pay to track anything onboard, just in case you spend $50,000 per vessel and USCG decide you bought the wrong system the next day. The technology to carry out full 24x7 global tracking is there and a lot of containers and goods movements on land in the US are already monitored - but until someone decides which system will be acceptable to get containers into the U.S.A. I can't see it happening in a big way. But I might be wrong....

Permalink Reply by Carl Bennett on March 27, 2008 at 17:23

Form-filling was a major problem in the ISM study we've just finished work on, but it is a shortfall in the implementation of the systems, not something inherent within the concept of safe working itself. Companies reluctant to assess crew competence (do you think they're worried about exactly how competent they'll find their crew actually are?) are not the most likely prospects to start spending money on new technology.

Permalink Reply by Bob Couttie on March 28, 2008 at 2:45

I know of one company that said it didn't want competency assessment, they knew their crew was not competent. However, if that was objectively confirmed they would then be liable.

Permalink Reply by Carl Bennett on March 28, 2008 at 16:57

Unreal, isn't it? Makes you feel all warm inside!!!!!

Why did Mr Plimsoll bother?

Permalink Reply by Bob Couttie on March 29, 2008 at 4:40

I suppose he had to draw the line somewhere :)
Unless it's forced in by regulation, competency assessment will remain a solution for a problem that actually isn't well understood ("I have an STCW cert., that proves I'm competent" - "I've been doing this for 30 years...blah, blah...)

Technology isn't a sole answer, take a look at on-load release hooks, any more than filling in form is an an answer, without the attitude infrastructure to support it.

Permalink Reply by David Pollitt on May 23, 2008 at 21:54