The Internet of everything sets sail

On the deck of a regatta-winning yacht, the #InternetofEverything inspires innovation. 

From CISCO

Countries, cities, and industries around the globe are becoming digital to capitalize on the unprecedented opportunity brought about by the next wave of the Internet: the Internet of Everything. Today’s competitive marketplace demands informed collaboration and instant access to accurate information.
Real-time data collection and analytics are crucial for effective performance, as are the connections between people, processes, data, and things.
This is the Internet of Everything, connected by Cisco.

On the deck of a world-class regatta-winning yacht sponsored by the Cisco Powered program, the Internet of Everything gives the crew a competitive advantage.
Network sensors use real-time data gathered by the Internet of Everything.
The yacht’s ruggedized platform combines boat sensor data; GPS, wind, and weather information; and a local Wi-Fi network to help the crew make critical decisions quickly.

In sailboat racing, as in business, crews are constantly responding to changing circumstances. Unpredictable conditions call for situational tactics, plus a long-term strategy for the race. Environmental factors such as wind shift or unexpected currents can completely change the game.
Although a slow boat may occasionally win with a lucky break, successful crews finish a regatta on top because they can make smart decisions in real time.

Cisco recently took IoE to the decks of the Foxy Lady 6 – a fierce competitor in the Asia Yachting Grand Prix, which takes place over the span of six months.

In a timeframe of two weeks, a series of IoT sensors, routers and wireless set-ups, and IoE advancements were installed to help the boat’s skipper and crew guide their race strategy and differentiate the Foxy Lady 6 as the competitor to watch.

Sponsored by Cisco Powered, the yacht was outfitted with a sensor network of components that used real-time, IoT-enabled data.

Mast and rig pressure, wind strength, boat speed, tidal current strength, and water depth measurements were just a few of the Big Data measurements the team was able to use to monitor race conditions.

(see Cisco blog)

Everything is Connected

On the boat, an immense amount of sailing data is collected and analyzed.
In the past, data was pulled from a variety of sources with disparate interfaces, formats, and protocols, which was time-consuming to organize and cumbersome to analyze.
Today, the entire network is an Internet of Everything solution, and the yacht’s big data is generated from an efficient on-boat network that sends real-time data to the crew locally and over Wi-Fi and cellular networks.

The yacht's data is fed through a B&G main processor and loaded via a Cisco IR910 Wi-Fi/cloud router to a laptop in the chase boat.
Mobile routing technology links the sensors in the boat and pushes data to the edge of the network—what Cisco calls the fog layer.
Here, the sensor data is efficiently analyzed locally in real time.
The racing vessel is also connected to cloud applications for data analytics, storage, and reporting.

Once everything is connected everywhere, analytics become the focus for innovation.
Sensors collect, store, and analyze data to optimize the boat’s speed in varying wind, sea-state, and tidal conditions. This integrated Internet of Everything platform provides a combination of fog computing, local Wi-Fi access, sensor aggregation, and 3G backhaul.
Interestingly, this new onboard technology was implemented in just two weeks.
Hundreds of thousands of measurements have been captured since that time, which allowed for ongoing analysis that helps the crew optimize the boat’s speed, sail-trim, and hull efficiency.

Technology has always played a role in the America's Cup.
But in the 34th edition, technology could be the difference between winning and losing.
Discover how Oracle Team USA deploys extreme technology for extreme performance.

Dramatically changing business by sea

The future-forward technology that enables a racing crew to make the real-time informed decisions that enhance a yacht’s performance in a regatta can be implemented by organizations with assets that are on the move, whether by sea, land, or air.

Imagine not just one sailboat, but rather fleets of cargo ships, trucks, and trains.

The Internet of Everything connects the unconnected, bringing together people, processes, data, and things to create new revenue streams, compete with disruptive competitors, deliver better experiences, and deploy new operating models that increase both efficiency and value.

When organizations re-invent themselves and see what’s possible when technology and business strategies come together, digitization becomes reality and innovation accelerates, turning data from anywhere into insights everywhere at sea.

Internet at sea with LEO micro-satellites :
Samsung theorizes globally affordable 5G Internet using low Earth orbit satellites

In the same time, the Internet at sea might soon become a lot more accessible, thanks to a proposal issued by Samsung that would loan the world an extra zetabyte of bandwidth every month.

The proposal describes a system requiring the deployment of 4,600 inexpensive Low Earth Orbit micro-satellites (LEO) positioned about 1,500 kilometers from Earth’s surface, much lower than a typical geostationary satellite. (see DigitalTrends article)

Links :

• Microsoft : Royal Caribbean sets sail with IoT (YouTube)
• Terepac : One Marine
• Forbes : 7 Ways America's Cup champions sail like successful IT teams
• TechWorld : Hyundai building smart ships for data-driven sailing

Revolutionary tidal fence is set to trap the sea’s power

UK-designed turbines aim to harness tidal energy to produce cheaper electricity − without endangering marine life, reports Climate News Network 

From The Guardian by Alex Kirby

A British company has announced plans for an array of unique marine turbines that can operate in shallower and slower-moving water than current designs.

Kepler Energy, whose technology is being developed by Oxford University’s department of engineering science, says the turbines will in time produce electricity more cheaply than off-shore wind farms.

It hopes to install its new design in what is called a tidal energy fence, one kilometre long, in the Bristol Channel − an estuary dividing South Wales from the west of England − at a cost of £143m. 

 Illustration showing how Kepler Energy’s turbine rotor blades will look

installed in a tidal fence configuration.

Photograph: Kepler Energy

The fence is a string of linked turbines, each of which will start generating electricity as it is completed, until the whole array is producing power.

The fence’s total output is 30 megawatts (MW), and 1MW can supply around 1,000 homes in the UK.

Peter Dixon, Kepler’s chairman, told Reuters news agency: “If we can build up to, say, 10km worth, which is a very extended fence, you’re looking at power outputs of five or six hundred megawatts. And just to visualise that, it’s like one small nuclear reactor’s worth of electricity being generated from the tides in the Bristol Channel.”

 Conceptual model of Kepler’s tidal energy fence, via Kepler Energy

The new Transverse Horizontal Axis Water Turbine (THAWT) − whose design is compared to that of a water mill − will use the latest carbon composite technology, and should be suitable for the waters around Britain, as well as overseas.

Because the turbines sit horizontally beneath the surface of the sea, they can be sited in water shallower than the 30-metre depth typically required by current designs.

And because the water is slow-moving, the company says, fish can safely avoid the turbines’ blades.

Although the technology is regarded as environmentally benign, Kepler says it will still undergo a rigorous environmental impact assessment during the planning process to ensure that it poses no significant risk to marine life and to other users of the sea.

There is more good news for proponents of renewable energy after the UK government − which is no longer encouraging onshore wind and solar energy − gave the go-ahead for a large offshore wind farm that could provide power for up to two million homes.

The new wind farm is to be built near the Dogger Bank in the North Sea and will have 400 turbines. 

 Dogger Bank area and wind farms localization in the GeoGarage platform

World's biggest offshore windfarm approved for Yorkshire coast

Its developers say it could create almost 5,000 jobs during construction.

And, earlier this year, they obtained planning consent for another installation nearby which, with the new development, will form one of the largest offshore wind farms in the world.
North Seas assets

But the fossil fuel industry is far from abandoning its own interest in British waters as the energy giant BP has announced that it is to invest about £670m to extend the life of its North Sea assets.

It said it would be drilling new wells, replacing undersea infrastructure, and introducing new technologies to help it to produce as much as possible from the area, whose future would be secured “until 2030 and beyond”.

In November, delegates to the UN climate change convention annual negotiations will gather in Paris to try to conclude an ambitious and effective agreement on preventing the global average temperature rise caused by greenhouse gas emissions exceeding 2C above its pre-industrial level.

Last year, the Convention’s executive secretary, Christiana Figueres, said the world’s long-term goal was to reduce greenhouse gases to zero by 2100 − a target she said would require leaving three-quarters of fossil fuels in the ground. 

“We just can’t afford to burn them”, she said.

The future of shipping? Seafaring Mayflower drone will use renewable energy to sail across the Atlantic Ocean in 2020

Slick: A British university has revealed plans to build the world's first full size unmanned ship to sail across the Atlantic Ocean

From DailyMail by Richard Gray

The future of shipping? Seafaring Mayflower drone will use renewable energy to sail across the Atlantic Ocean in 2020

• Plymouth University will build Mayflower Autonomous Research Ship, which will be the first of its kind in the world
• Ship will demonstrate future of shipping and ocean research, being unmanned and powered by renewable energy
• Vessel will replicate the sailing of the 'pilgrim fathers', and project will be ready on the 400th anniversary Mayflower
• The pilgrims left Plymouth in September 1620 to start new life and arrived in 'New Plymouth' on December 21

If successful it could pave the way for fleets of floating drones carrying cargo, and perhaps even passengers, around the world.
The vessel, which is being developed at Plymouth Univesrity, will replicate the sailing of the 'pilgrim fathers', and the university aim for the project to be ready on the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower, in 2020.
The pilgrims left Plymouth, Devon, on board the Mayflower in September 1620, to start a new life and arrived in 'New Plymouth', Massachusetts on December 21, 1620.
A statement on the project's website said: 'As a genuine world first and the largest civilian-based project of its kind, the Mayflower Autonomous Research Ship has the potential to transform and influence the future of world shipping, and inspire a new generation of ocean explorers and researchers.
'MARS will pave the way for the creation and development of new technologies in ocean exploration and navigation, technologies fit for the 21st century and beyond – facilitating marine-based research in areas deemed dangerous, dirty or dull.'

Meand powered by renewable energyan machine: Ship will demonstrate the future of shipping and ocean research, being unmanned and powered by renewable energy

The ship will replicate the sailing of the 'pilgrim fathers', and the university aim for the project to be ready on the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower, in 2020.
The pilgrims left Plymouth, Devon, on board the Mayflower in September 1620

The vessel has been designed by yachting firm Shuttleworth Design and will operate as a research platform, conducting experiments during its voyage.

The ship will use solar panels, wave power and the wind to help power its crossing. It will also use new navigation software to allow the vessel to make the crossing without the help of humans.

The project's website said: 'The civilian maritime world has struggled to keep pace with technology due to a combination of cultural and cost factors.

Plymouth University has said the vessel will use state of the art technology to harness the sun, wind and waves to power the vessel on its voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. It will use autonomous navigation software to ensure it can navigate without human input

'The autonomous drone technology that has been used so effectively in situations considered unsuitable for humans has not been harnessed by the shipping industry, which continues to steer the conservative course, its diesel engines pumping out carbon emissions and its manned crews at risk from piracy.
'It begs the question, if we can put a rover on Mars and have it autonomously conduct research, why can't we sail an unmanned vessel across the Atlantic Ocean and, ultimately, around the globe.'

Big data maps world's ocean floor : geology of ocean floor revealed

www.portal.gplates.org/cesium/?view=seabed
First interactive map of seafloor geology : Seafloor Lithology allows you to explore seafloor lithologies based on nearly 14,500 samples taken from the world's seas and oceans.
The 3d globe view also allows you to explore the topography of the seafloor
(use ctrl & the left mouse button to rotate the camera view around a point).

From University of Sydney

Scientists from the University of Sydney’s School of Geosciences have led the creation of the world’s first digital map of the seafloor’s geology.

It is the first time the composition of the seafloor, covering 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, has been mapped in 40 years; the most recent map was hand drawn in the 1970s.
Published in the latest edition of Geology, the map will help scientists better understand how our oceans have responded, and will respond, to environmental change.
It also reveals the deep ocean basins to be much more complex than previously thought.
“In order to understand environmental change in the oceans we need to better understand what is preserved in the geological record in the seabed,” says lead researcher Dr Adriana Dutkiewicz from the University of Sydney.
“The deep ocean floor is a graveyard with much of it made up of the remains of microscopic sea creatures called phytoplankton, which thrive in sunlit surface waters. The composition of these remains can help decipher how oceans have responded in the past to climate change.”
A special group of phytoplankton called diatoms produce about a quarter of the oxygen we breathe and make a bigger contribution to fighting global warming than most plants on land. Their dead remains sink to the bottom of the ocean, locking away their carbon.
The new seafloor geology map demonstrates that diatom accumulations on the seafloor are nearly entirely independent of diatom blooms in surface waters in the Southern Ocean.
“This disconnect demonstrates that we understand the carbon source, but not the sink,” says co-author Professor Dietmar Muller from the University of Sydney.
More research is needed to better understand this relationship.

A still shot of the world's first digital map of the seafloor's geology.
The digital data and interactive map are freely available as open access resources.

"The map will help scientists better understand how our oceans have responded, and will respond to, climate change."

Dr Dutkiewicz said, “Our research opens the door to future marine research voyages aimed at better understanding the workings and history of the marine carbon cycle.

Australia’s new research vessel Investigator is ideally placed to further investigate the impact of environmental change on diatom productivity. We urgently need to understand how the ocean responds to climate change.”

The map key explains the colors used for the seafloor's different geologies.

The map key is a little small but if you click on the key it will open in a legible size in a separate window.

Some of the most significant changes to the seafloor map are in the oceans surrounding Australia.

“The old map suggests much of the Southern Ocean around Australia is mainly covered by clay blown off the continent, whereas our map shows this area is actually a complex patchwork of microfossil remains,” said Dr Dutkiewicz.

“Life in the Southern Ocean is much richer than previously thought.”

Dr Dutkiewicz and colleagues analysed and categorised around 15,000 seafloor samples – taken over half a century on research cruise ships to generate the data for the map.

She teamed with the National ICT Australia (NICTA) big data experts to find the best way to use algorithms to turn this multitude of point observations into a continuous digital map.

“Recent images of Pluto’s icy plains are spectacular, but the process of unveiling the hidden geological secrets of the abyssal plains of our own planet was equally full of surprises!” co-author Dr Simon O’Callaghan from NICTA said.

Links :

• Phys : Big data maps world's ocean floor 
• DailyMail : What the Earth would look like stripped of oceans: First ever digital map of the sea floor reveals our planet's 'alien' landscape

Sea Atlases project

Sea Atlases is a new interactive map showcasing some of the fabulous historical sea charts in the Harvard Map Collection.
Ten atlas volumes were digitized by the Harvard Map Collection, and then georeferenced in order to be able to place them on top of a modern day interactive map.
Being able to explore these fantastic vintage sea charts is of course the main attraction of Sea Atlases, but this is only made possible by the beautifully intuitive and well designed interface that allows you to explore the collection by date and by location.

www.sea-atlases.org/maps/?atlas=all

As long as people have ventured out in ships and exposed themselves to the vagaries of wind and tide, they have endeavored as much as possible to minimize the risks of life at sea.
The earliest mariners, of course, relied upon the oral transmission of instructions about the hazards of navigation, methods of orientation, and anchorages along particular routes.
The ancient Greeks and Romans often codified those details in manuscript logs (peripli), which listed sequentially the distances between ports and landmarks along coastal routes.
With improvements in the technology of orientation and navigation in late medieval Europe, these textual guides evolved into portolan charts which offered graphic tools for laying down a course and following a coastal itinerary.
Beginning in the late 16th century, the nascent cartographic publishing industry found a receptive market for pilot books and sea atlases, which provided collections of detailed charts and sailing directions for the most frequently traversed routes.
In the website we will introduce some of the most influential of these early guides to the realms of Neptune.

Links :

• Rumsey collection in the GeoGarage : ancient maps overlayed on Google Maps imagery
• Atlas obscura : 7 gorgeous sea maps from the age of exploration