Crowley, ABS to jointly explore how to advance use of AR, VR for vessels

Sept. 27, 2023
ABS and Crowley aim to advance augmented reality technology for the maritime sector.

Offshore staff

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.  Crowley and ABS have entered an agreement to jointly explore how to advance the use of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies for vessels and other marine environments.

Crowley owns and operates a diverse fleet that includes container, roll on/roll off (RoRo), tug, dry cargo and offshore wind development and service operation vessels. The ABS partnership agreement builds on Crowley’s new service network using AR on select vessels.

Crew wear goggle technology to provide real-time visuals of ship equipment to remote technicians to collaborate on solutions. The technology, developed by Kognitiv Spark, allows mariners and shoreside crew to more quickly complete maintenance, updates and upgrades on board with digital collaboration.

ABS and Crowley will collaborate in a joint pilot project for classification-related survey support activities, such as aspects of annual and special surveys including task crediting. In addition, the project will include a variety of activities involving surveyors, engineers and back-office survey support, virtual walkthroughs and livestreaming using fully remote and hybrid survey techniques. Successful class surveys are important to operate vessels, the companies said.

ABS is applying technologies, such as high-resolution laser scanning, UAVs, crawlers, ROVs and wearable technologies to augment traditional class-related surveys and inspections.

09.27.2023