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Strategic Aid For Escort and Salvage Tugs at Work (SAFETOW)

Final Report Summary - SAFETOW (Strategic aid for escort and salvage tugs at work)

The SAFETOW project aimed to provide masters of disabled vessels and masters of salvage and escort tugs with support tools which would enable them to take decisions in real-time with the best available information regarding the consequence of their actions. The project encompassed an experimental programme which collects the manoeuvring data, including manoeuvring with more than one tug. The analysed data is used as a basis for software modelling. The software is integrated with the vessels' bridge systems to provide real-time help and decision support, training capability and monitoring.

The project was structured into 10 Work packages (WP), as follows:
WP 1: Accident scenario definition
WP 2: Data collection and analysis task
WP 4: Prototype specification
WP 5: Prototype implementation
WP 6: System installation and field test
WP 7: Revised specifications
WP 8: Final implementation
WP 9: Final system installation and test
WP 10: Project management.

The project yielded the following results:
- definition of a full set of requirements for SAFETOW systems;
- definition of a full set of specifications for SAFETOW systems;
- implementation of a first set of prototypes;
- evaluation of a first set of prototypes;
- revised set of specifications for SAFETOW system;
- final implementation of the revised SAFETOW system;
- end-user evaluations of the final prototypes.

It is the objective of SAFETOW to create a solution for effective and safe towing and manoeuvring solutions. The exploitation of such solutions will be approached through direct exploitation of results by the end-users and of the consortium of the system created in SAFETOW.