The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) announced a collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, to support the maritime industry’s digital transformation and green transition.
MPA said it will use AWS services, including cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital twins, to enhance the industry’s efficiency, safety, and sustainability outcomes.
A memorandum of understanding was signed between David Foo, Assistant Chief Executive (Operations Technology), MPA and Elsie Tan, Country Manager, Worldwide Public Sector, Singapore, AWS, on April 16.
The announcement said, "As part of the collaboration, MPA and AWS will develop the maritime Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI-ML) Digital Hub, the first of its kind in the ASEAN region."
It added that the AI–ML Digital Hub would leverage AWS cloud to enable the maritime industry to pilot innovative AI and generative AI (GenAI) capabilities to trial on the Green and Digital Shipping Corridors, optimising routes and fuel consumption, carbon emissions accounting, and just-in-time arrivals to help ships operate more efficiently, reduce greenhouse gases emissions, and enhance the safety of operations.
To develop the industry’s AI capabilities, MPA and AWS will also conduct training, incubation initiatives, and immersion programmes to equip maritime industry employees and stakeholders, particularly those in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with cloud, data, and AI skills. The first training programme is expected to roll out by the end of 2024.
Use of Digital Ship Identity with S&P Global and Bunkerchain
MPA also signed an MoU with S&P Global Market Intelligence and Bunkerchain to use the Port of Singapore as the test bed to trial and pilot the use of digital ship identity in maritime applications such as digital port clearance and digital bunkering.
“Digital identity refers to the unique representation of an entity in the digital world, which consists of various attributes and data that distinguish it from others. Electronic transactions may be vulnerable to various risks such as identity fraud and data integrity breaches,” MPA said in the announcement.
It noted that digital ship identity plays a crucial role in making electronic transactions more secure, trusted, and efficient in the maritime sector.
“When deployed in tandem with electronic signatures, these digital technologies will eliminate the need for physical ship stamps and wet ink signatures and accelerate the transition towards a truly digital, secure, and paperless operation,” the port added.
MPA said it is developing an AI-enabled Next-Generation Vessel Traffic Management System (NGVTMS) to strengthen vessel navigational safety and efficiency at the port.
In April 2024, MPA awarded the NGVTMS prototyping tender to three key global players for Vessel Traffic Management (Tidalis B.V., Kongsberg Norcontrol AS, and Wartsila Singapore Pte. Ltd.) to develop prototypes at MPA’s Maritime Innovation Lab 2.0 over the next 15 months, before embarking on full-scale development of the system.
MPA said the NGVTMS will be based on an open system architecture and have advanced features such as data analytics to identify traffic hotspots and machine learning to predict collisions and enable vessel traffic officers to handle higher volumes and more complex vessel traffic safely.
In the space domain, MPA is developing a Satellite Resource Management Platform (SRMP) to capture satellite images for time-critical missions quickly.
It noted that satellite images are crucial to support time-critical missions, such as searching for distressed vessels which are uncontactable.
MPA added that together with Esri Singapore, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s Institute of High-Performance Computing and the Technology Centre for Offshore and Marine, Singapore, it has developed a digital twin proof-of-concept of a methanol bunkering leak incident.
