Learning together to transmit data at Sea

Magazine | 08-11-2020 | Herman Heringa

Rijkswaterstaat's role in Wiebrand Bouwkamp's future vision is to be the service provider for North Sea data for the Netherlands. As manager of shared services offshore, he began realizing that vision by setting up the Maritime Information Provision Service Point (MIVSP). MIVSP collects various data about the North Sea using sensors on transformer platforms near offshore wind farms. This information is then channeled to a wide range of interested parties—from shipping, fishing, and the wind farms themselves to aviation, meteorologists, and ecologists. Bouwkamp: "This is just a warm-up. To make bigger strides, we need knowledge, expertise, and lots of money. We need to collaborate more with other organizations and train and guide our people."

Attracting Students to Offshore Technology

In the next steps, the Offshore Expertise Center (OEC) in Stellendam will play a crucial role. Bouwkamp: "The OEC currently facilitates projects like MIVSP, but eventually, it should become a full-fledged field lab for offshore activities. We need to involve educational institutions and conduct applied research. For example, to learn how to operate devices at sea without a power grid or fiber optic connection. We need to promote ourselves, as Rijkswaterstaat is an unknown entity for students and educational programs. I give guest lectures at colleges and universities, targeting technical students, especially those with an offshore focus. I show videos of the OEC and explain what we do, how we create models, work with concepts, and report on them. This is necessary for collaboration and securing funding. I hope students become interested, perhaps take an internship with us, and maybe even stay on."

Working with New Applications

Currently, Bouwkamp is mentoring three students from Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. Chris Markus is finishing his technical informatics degree at the OEC. "I've interned before, but I wanted to experience working at a large organization like Rijkswaterstaat," he says. "I was also drawn to working on truly new applications, while my previous internships mostly involved derivatives of existing products." Çalar Gül and Daniël Nekeman are both in their third year of computer science. Like Markus, they came to the OEC through PraktijkLink, their college's internship platform. Nekeman: "In our studies, we mostly focus on front-end and software. This project also involves hardware and radio signals. We wanted to see if we liked that too."

Example: Sending coordinates of a drowning person to a rescue boat

The three students are working on a new technique to transmit data at sea. Bouwkamp: "Devices like phones automatically choose a suitable carrier technology to communicate, such as 3G, 4G, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi. But at sea, you have no coverage. You can communicate via satellites, but that's slow and expensive. We are exploring the possibility of using DAB+ as a carrier. DAB+ is currently only used to transmit sound for uninterrupted car radio. We want to use it to send other data as well. Together with the Coast Guard and KNRM, we are working on concrete cases. For example, if a ship is in distress, the Coast Guard calls the coordinates to a KNRM rescue boat. If that works—3G only works within 3 kilometers from the coast and there is a lot of noise—they write the coordinates on the window with a marker and then manually enter them into their navigation system. With DAB+, we could send that data directly to the navigation system over a distance of 70 kilometers."

Collaborating with an external Broadcaster

The students each chose a specific case in consultation with Bouwkamp and digital connectivity advisor Fred Hage. Nekeman is working on updating navigation system maps on board via DAB+. Gül is ensuring that EWS signals—early warning signals, similar to NL-alert—can be received and displayed via DAB+. Markus is investigating ways to control devices at sea via DAB+. This would allow them to be turned on and off remotely or perform other actions—a significant step for autonomous systems. To test their solutions, they collaborate with an external broadcaster who has a mast and license for DAB+ and sends test data that the students should be able to receive and process. It's exciting to see if that will work. Gül: "We've just got something working, but now we have to wait for the broadcaster to agree to the quote and send the data."

Golden Opportunity: Opening of the Offshore Expertise Center

The internships last six months. At the time of the interview, the boys had been at it for about a month and a half. Despite this, they had hardly had any contact with Rijkswaterstaat colleagues beyond their two supervisors. Markus: "We started during the corona period. I have a good workspace at home, but collaborating is difficult. You can't just ask someone to look at your laptop." Nekeman: "This is our first work experience, but we don't really see how things go at the office. We had to buy hardware and improvise to make everything work at home." In this regard, it was a golden opportunity for the three to be present at the OEC opening in the second week of their internship. Gül: "We got to explain our project to Rijkswaterstaat officials and met people from the broadcaster who gave a demonstration with their transmitter and receiver. That was really fun!"

Valuable: Learning from each other

The students are happy with the challenges their assignment offers. Markus: "Transmitting data via DAB+ is really new; we have to figure out a lot ourselves. We also use our study knowledge to create practical applications. That's very valuable." Bouwkamp agrees: "The students learn from us to apply knowledge, but we also learn from them. They know new technologies that are useful for our work. This way, we can build and pass on knowledge together." Bouwkamp is already working to continue this course. "It will be a few months before these three finish their internship, but I'm already recruiting new students. Where one stops, another must pick up the work. Continuity is important. That's why I like to build lasting contacts with educational institutions."