Vessel Event Trigger Module for Remote Failure Reporting

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing systems for remote monitoring of vessel electronic equipment face challenges such as incomplete or incorrect reporting of device failures due to high crew workload, leading to inefficient troubleshooting and potential breakdowns, and require costly infrastructure to process large volumes of irrelevant data.

Innovation Solution

A hybrid architecture using an event trigger module that directly communicates with a remote diagnostic centre via satellite, parsing relevant NMEA 0183 messages to identify device failures and provide timely troubleshooting instructions, utilizing a dedicated communication link for efficient monitoring and diagnosis.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If satellite communication links are used to provide real-time information from vessel to remote diagnostic centre, then complete information can be transmitted, but expensive infrastructure and sophisticated processing capabilities are required

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecompleteness of failure informationVSAvoidinfrastructure cost and processing capability
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by implementing an event trigger module on the vessel that proactively detects device failures and automatically transmits only relevant failure information to the remote diagnostic centre. This pre-filtering of data before transmission eliminates the need for expensive infrastructure to handle and sift through large volumes of irrelevant data, while still ensuring complete and accurate failure information is received for reliable diagnosis.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

2Ease of operation

If crew members report device failures manually, then communication can be established, but incomplete or incorrect information is transmitted due to high workload and fear of blame

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesimplicity of failure reportingVSAvoidaccuracy of failure description
Core Design Contradiction:
Ease of operationVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables self-service by implementing automated failure detection and reporting through the event trigger module, which monitors device status and autonomously transmits failure information without requiring crew intervention. This eliminates the problems of incomplete or incorrect manual reporting caused by high workload and fear of blame, while maintaining ease of operation as the system works automatically in the background.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback mechanisms where the event trigger module continuously monitors device status and automatically provides feedback about failures to the remote diagnostic centre. This automated feedback loop ensures accurate and complete failure information is transmitted without relying on manual crew reporting, thereby preventing information loss while maintaining operational simplicity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

3Quantity of substance

If large volume of data is transmitted to remote diagnostic centre, then all information is available for analysis, but expensive infrastructure is needed to process and identify relevant failure data

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvevolume of transmitted dataVSAvoidprocessing infrastructure cost
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system applies the extraction principle by implementing an event trigger module that selectively extracts and transmits only the relevant failure information from the vessel to the remote diagnostic centre. Instead of transmitting large volumes of all available data, the module identifies and extracts only the critical failure-related data, thereby eliminating the need for expensive processing infrastructure while ensuring all necessary information for diagnosis is received.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentEP4283966B1Apparatus and method for remote monitoring
Publication Date: 2025.10.01 FURUNO ELECTRIC CO LTD
  • EP4283966B1 patent drawingFigure 1A
  • EP4283966B1 patent drawingFigure 1B~1C
  • EP4283966B1 patent drawingFigure 1D

AI summary

An event trigger module (103) is provided for monitoring of one or more nautical electronic devices (107) on a vessel (101) from a remote diagnostic centre (113). The event trigger module (103) includes a receiving module (123) that receives one or more messages from the one or more nautical electronic devices (107), a detecting module (125) configured to detect failure of the one or more nautical electronic devices (107) based on the one or more messages, and a transmitting module (127) configured to transmit information associated with the failure to the remote diagnostic centre (113).