Amarcon, Observator to launch helideck monitoring and forecasting system at SMM

Amarcon, a part of the ABB group and Observator Instruments, a developer of sensors and services for meteorological and hydrological monitoring, have announced that the companies will jointly develop a helideck monitoring and forecasting system.

Amarcon stated that the helideck monitoring and forecasting system will improve the flight and passenger safety during helicopter landings and take offs.

The new system, which will fully integrate with Amarcon’s vessel advisory system OCTOPUS, monitors weather conditions and advises a vessel’s crew whether to proceed with an intended helicopter operation (go/no-go) or wait. The system’s analysis and recommendation is based in weather data from the past 20 minutes.

The advisory system allows the vessel crew to have insight in a safe time window for the heli-operation based on the OCTOPUS motion forecast. In this window the most optimal heading and maximum allowable motions can be selected to ensure a safe heli operation. This forecast is derived from the industry accepted and proven OCTOPUS technology which is installed on more than 300 vessels, and is based on forecasted weather predictions and the hydrodynamic properties of the vessel.

Amarcon says that with the OCTOPUS forecasting functionality, the onboard crew will have a far more precise understanding of available weather windows for heli-operations for the coming hours and days. Therefore crew changes can be planned in a more safe and accurate way, because next to the actual and past weather conditions, the forecasted weather and vessel motions are also taken into account.

The system will be officially released for the maritime and offshore industry during the international maritime trade fair SMM in Hamburg from 9-12 September, at the Observator Instruments booth 609 in Hall B6. ABB booth 202 will be located in Hall A3.

August 28, 2014