Unique vessel positioning system lands Montreal's Averna engineering award

August 15, 2008

Montreal-based test engineering company Averna recently won National Instruments’ inaugural Graphical System Design Achievement Award in the category of industrial measurements/control for its unique automated vessel positioning system implemented for the St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corp.

More than 110 authors from 13 countries participated in this international competition organized by NI and judged by a panel of 30 industry experts and 20 top trade publications. The challenge of this project was to develop an automated ship positioning system to reduce vessel transit time and operational costs by integrating hardware and software for continuous, reliable operation in an outdoor marine environment.

The award recognizes the most innovative user applications based on NI software and hardware, and Averna’s entry was the first of its kind in the world to be driven by NI technology. The solution was to use the NI LabVIEW Real-Time and LabVIEW FPGA modules and the NI LabWindows/CVI development environment deployed on an NI PXI-1031 chassis and NI CompactRIO controllers to create the vessel self-spotting system (VSSS).

“We are proud and honored to have earned this recognition,” said Averna COO Richard Maltais. “This award win testifies to our expertise in creating innovative solutions for the most challenging engineering projects in test and measurement.”

The St. Lawrence Seaway is composed of a network of locks that make up one of the world’s most spectacular lift systems. Ships measuring up to 225.5 m in length (which is twice as long as a football field) are routinely raised to more than 180 m above sea level, as high as a 60-storey building. Due to the scale of these operations, mooring position accuracy is critical. Using a laser beam to sweep the moving vessel and form a 3D image, the VSSS measures the vessel’s exact distance, in metres, from its final mooring position, and communicates it to the vessel captain through both a display panel and an automated radio transmission. This is accomplished by integrating powerful vision algorithms to precisely locate the foremost point of the ship bow, for ships of different shape, height, and color shading.

In each scanning assembly, an NI cRIO-9014 real-time controller (above) synchronizes data from a Sick LD-LRS laser scanner (below) and a rotary stage (Schunk PR 090 servo-electric rotary actuator) to create a 3D cloud of points.

The three main components of the VSSS are the controller assembly, the scanning assembly, and the display assembly. The scanning assembly is located outdoors at mirror positions upstream and downstream at each end of the lock. In each scanning assembly, an NI cRIO-9014 real-time controller synchronizes data from a laser scanner (Sick LD-LRS laser measurement system) and a rotary stage (Schunk PR 090 servo-electric rotary actuator) to create a 3D cloud of points. It then relays this data to the controller assembly over an Ethernet network, where the vessel position is precisely computed. A PLC supplies vessel characteristics so that the controller assembly can process an accurate 3D image of the vessel. The display assembly shows vessel distances and system states on large digital displays at mirror positions upstream and downstream.

In vessel positioning operations, there is little to no margin for error, which is why the accuracy of the VSSS needs to be backed up by failsafe systems. Because the scanning assembly must work under outdoor conditions, a warm-up period is required for it to run with optimal precision.

As they deploys the VSSS across all locks in the seaway, Averna looks forward to documenting the reduction in transit time and operational costs.

As a company, Averna’s mission is to accelerate electronic product development and improve quality standards for innovative high-tech manufacturers in electronics, telecommunications, automotive, aerospace and defence, throughout the design lifecycle of their products. OEMs rely on Averna to establish a global test strategy, to standardize and streamline their test activities, and to leverage Averna's off-the-shelf software, instrumentation and communication solutions, and on-demand engineering services to maximize the impact of test on product success, from design to manufacturing.
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