An impressive cruise ship evacuation pilot demonstration at the Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France showed that smart technology can save lives. A dress rehearsal for rescuing people at sea by the most advanced means was held on the cruise ship Celebrity Beyond, the cruise giant of the Royal Caribbean Group, in various areas and parts of the ship, with the participation of a large number of volunteers, shipyard security personnel, the ship and technical partners of the project, which also has a Greek signature.

Five extremely challenging evacuation scenarios have been developed at Celebrity Beyond, the result of two years of research and testing within the European SafePASS project, which Greece is coordinating with two research groups of the National Technical University of Athens: the I-SENSE Group and the Maritime Transport Laboratory (Laboratory of Maritime Transport – LMT ). The aim of the project was to create an integrated information system for the crew and passengers to quickly and safely evacuate the ship, with a combination of advanced rescue equipment and dynamic models to calculate the risk and movement of passengers. It is being implemented by a consortium of 15 partners made up of academic institutions, taxonomists, innovative SMEs, shipyards, lifeboat and cruise ship manufacturers across Europe.

Difficult process

“The sinking of the Titanic back in 1912 is certainly one of the largest maritime disasters in history, which showed us how difficult it is to evacuate passenger ships in emergency situations. It is a process with strict time frames and rules, as well as a complex decision-making process,” said Dr. Angelos Amditis, President of the European Organization for Intelligent Transport Systems (ERTICO-ITS Europe) and Director of I-SENSE NTUA. Group.

More recent are the cases of “Sea Diamond” (2007, in the Santorini caldera, two were missing) and “Costa Concordia” (2012, off the island of Giglio, 32 dead). “In modern shipping, intelligent systems can guarantee safety and literally open the way to a new era of maritime transport. A prime example of this are the tests carried out in the context of SafePASS,” adds Dr. Amditis.

The following ship evacuation scenarios were tested in the Celebrity Beyond pilot demonstration.

1. Night, a ship at sea, a fire breaks out.

2. Day, the ship stands near the shore, stumbles upon a reef and floods.

3. Night, the ship is in port, a fire breaks out.

4. Night, a ship at sea, stumbles upon a reef, floods and at the same time a fire breaks out.

5. Night, the ship is near the shore, the passenger has disappeared.

This is the result of two years of research and testing within the SafePASS European project, which Greece is coordinating with two NTUA research groups.

Evacuation becomes more difficult when the sea is rough. Plus, it’s harder during the day. At night, most passengers sleep in their cabins, meaning their location is known, while during the day they can be anywhere.

In each scenario, the following steps were performed: risk identification and assessment, activation of a general alarm, collection of passengers, preparation of crew actions, etc. Participating volunteers tested in real time a number of innovative solutions developed under SafePASS. Dynamic exit signs, dedicated smartphone apps, smart life jackets and wristbands. They provide comprehensive real-time information on the whereabouts of passengers on board, their vital signs and personalized navigation to appropriate and safe emergency exits and muster points.

Dynamic exit signs are actually screens that change depending on the progress of the event for a new, safer escape route. For example, if there is a fire or a flooded area after an emergency exit, it cannot be used, as explained by Mr. Lazaros Karagiannidis, I-SENSE EPISEY/NTU team researcher and project coordinator. .

Everything on mobile

Once the decision to evacuate is made, smartphone apps inform passengers in real time about what to do, where the emergency exits are, where the collection points are and how to get there. That is, as soon as passengers receive an evacuation signal on their mobile phone, they automatically receive all important commands along with safety instructions on the ship. They can also let the crew know if they have mobility or health problems and ask for help.

“Smart life jackets” help passengers when there is no access to other means, i.e. they do not have a mobile phone with them, smoke from a fire makes it difficult to see emergency exits, etc. Voice commands (forward, backward, right, left, up, down) are directed to emergency exits and collection points.

Wristbands are wristbands worn by passengers that transmit their biometric data, such as heart rate, blood oxygen, stress levels, to a central platform. Because, as Mr. Karagiannidis explains, the increased stress levels of a large number of passengers at some point can change the evacuation strategy.

All information related to the evacuation is collected on the central Common Operational Picture platform, which is managed by the ship’s operations center. Depending on the development of the event and based on risk assessment models, the evacuation strategy is adjusted, i.e. indications of available evacuation exits, safe and fast routes, etc. are changed.

Rescue Applications

Crew training is carried out using augmented reality applications. With the help of visualized actions, this is practiced at all stages of critical incident management and the use of rescue equipment.

“All of these applications have been successfully tested, demonstrating that SafePASS systems can significantly improve extreme event awareness and surveillance, crew and passenger response times, and ultimately reduce the overall abandonment time of cruise ships. Combined with the innovative design of the new lifeboats and the SafePASS dynamic calculation and risk assessment model, they can improve evacuation procedures aimed at protecting human life. The set of proposed solutions will serve as the basis for proposals to revise international maritime safety regulations and lead us into a new era where smart technologies can guarantee increased safety in maritime transport,” concludes Mr. Karagiannidis.