Wave Predictor

Objective

Offshore waves are irregular and unpredictable. The only way offshore operations can be managed safely is through a combination of elaborate statistics and large safety margins. These have been inalienable truths for all offshore operations and vessels for decades.
Some progress has been made in radar technology to analyze surrounding wave spectra real-time, and calculate the probability that a too high wave arises. This is the current state-of-the art in offshore technology, but has several consequences and limitations for operational safety and costs:

- “Safe” is still not 100% safe; a 1/1000 probability that a critical wave height is exceeded is often deemed acceptable. Far from land and handling expensive equipment, the consequences of accidents can be large (millions of euros, injury or death), another reason for the large safety margins;
- Double costs regularly arise when conditions are deemed safe and a transport or operation is started, but subsequently abandoned empty-handed;
- Opportunity costs are enormous as well, due to lost working hours when there would have been plenty safe operational windows - if only they were known upfront.
Next Ocean has developed a world-wide unique technology to predict (critically high) waves 3 minutes in advance. Their Wave Predictor, which is the result of more than ten years of research, contains unique “deciphering” and predictive algorithms for upcoming waves and the resulting ship motions. The WP predicts exactly when and where dangerously high waves, enabling users to anticipate proactively in time.

Field of science

• /social sciences/social and economic geography/transport
• /engineering and technology/electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering/information engineering/telecommunications/radio technology/radar

Programme(s)

• H2020-EU.3.4. - SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport
• H2020-EU.2.1.1. - INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)
• H2020-EU.2.3.1. - Mainstreaming SME support, especially through a dedicated instrument

Topic(s)

• SMEInst-10-2016-2017 - Small business innovation research for Transport and Smart Cities Mobility

Call for proposal

H2020-SMEINST-1-2016-2017
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Coordinator