The Remote Support Centre – an Exploration of Technical Support and Coordination for Marine Archipelago Traffic

Three shipping companies for passenger traffic on the Swedish east and west coast took part in a participative design process generating seven scenarios during a research project from 2021-2024. The project addressed technical and operative challenges in setting up a Remote Support Centre (RSC) for marine archipelago traffic. One main technical challenge was to select among thousands of technical signals which can be transmitted from vessels, and decide which would be useful to send to a RSC. Using participative design in workshops and high-fidelity simulations, we identified needs and relevant parameters by recreating situations based on crew stories and experience. The RSC was installed in Stockholm, Sweden with three connected vessels. Our thesis - that marine archipelago traffic can be improved by making data available, processing and refining it, and delivered back to the onboard crew as decision assistance - was supported. Technical assistance from the RSC showed usefulness already in early live tests by enabling systematic checking of generators, alarms onboard, charging status of the batteries as well as initiating daily contact with the crew. The study also resulted in two tentative operative concepts for RSC services. Further development and testing of the concepts, exploration of useful information, design of RSC interfaces as well as assessment of economic aspects may be addressed in future studies.