AUTOMATION | MODERNISATION
SEA POWER The Danish Navy’s need to upgrade the vessels in its elite Absalon-class
support fleet offered a great opportunity for automation.
Understanding the specific
needs of the armed forces
can be difficult for even the
best ‘civilian’ technology
architect to tackle, however
Logimatic, a leading system integrator
had extensive experience working
with the Navy. Together with longtime
ally Rockwell Automation, they
faced the first of the Danish Naval
flexible support vessels when it
arrived into dry dock for a complete
technical overhaul.
They knew they would have to
not only think and act like they were
sailing the high seas themselves, but
to push the boundaries of marine
technology.
Built in 2003, the Danish Navy ship
HDMS Absalon (L16) was scheduled
to have its automation and remotecontrol
system completely replaced
after a 15-year lifespan. The situation
called for nothing less than a complete
modernisation of the ship’s entire
technical infrastructure.
Running the ship’s outdated ‘thick’
system was not only excessively
expensive to maintain, but in many
cases had become so obsolete that
it was no longer updatable. User
terminals around the vessel with
banks of screens controlling different
functions such as fire management,
warning systems, camera monitoring
and alarms had become a labourintensive
task to maintain.
It had become critical to overhaul
this aging infrastructure to confirm
that serving naval personnel could
access the right application from the
right location at the right time, with a
modern visualisation system which
would not only improve the user
experience, but also to save time and
potentially save human lives.
“Clearly the ship’s technical
abilities were antiquated and needed
to come into line with more modern
capabilities,” explains Mathias Jensen,
project engineer, Logimatic. “The
Danish Navy was keen to find new
flexible, yet resilient, solutions for
their personnel which could be easily
implemented and activated.”
Logimatic, knew the situation
required a leaner system that would
connect the entire vessel in a way
where content could be managed,
delivered and shared with terminals
anywhere across the ship via any
crew member.
However, demonstrating to the
Danish Navy that this system was the
best plan of attack was not as easy as a
standard pitch. So Logimatic decided
to go the extra mile – it custom built
a dedicated, fully operational proof
of concept lab where their proposed
systems could be tried and tested
first-hand.
THINMANAGER
After in-depth consultations
with the navy, including time
spent inside the lab, Logimatic’s
recommendation was to design
and implement ThinManager, the
simplified technical architecture
from Rockwell Automation which
simplifies management of hardware,
applications and visual sources.
Having been impressed with much
of the pre-work performed with
ThinManager during this consultative
process, navy personnel readily
agreed to set sail.
“We spent a huge amount of time
together with the Danish Navy inside
our concept lab, constantly reviewing
designs and trouble-shooting
potential issues” continues Mathias
Jensen. “We knew that we would
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