The TRANSACT project was invited to the first meeting of the SOVtBAL initiative that focuses on providing a concept design for an autonomous/semi-autonomous, ecological hybrid-driven vessel, supporting the operations of offshore wind farms (OFW).

The proposed service operational vessel (SOV) will be used in future commercial applications to improve safety and reduce costs of maintenance and operations of OWFs, which will have direct impact on energy prices in the future. Planned SOV will involve improvements in ship design including alternative propulsion and fueling methods that can include electric, hybrid and hydrogen.

As the scope of the SOVtBAL initiative includes autonomous operations, legal conditions regulating the future operation of the ship both in maritime areas included in the coastal state’s territory and in areas outside state jurisdiction (e.g. exclusive economic zones) will be considered.

TRANSACT project representative, Prof. Lukasz Kulas, presented potential synergies that can be created along the TRANSACT safety-oriented edge-cloud architecture, especially within the maritime domain. The presentation focused on semi-autonomous unmanned surface vehicles (USV) as a universal testing platform integrated with the TRANSACT architecture and their potential use in OWF applications.

SOVtBAL initiative representatives warmly welcomed the opportunity to verify requirements and assumptions in real semi-autonomous USVs. In result, the TRANSACT project will align with the SOVtBAL initiative to create synergies by exchanging requirements, so the TRANSACT architecture can be used in real semi-autonomous and environmentally-friendly SOVs in the future.

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