Collaboration between ShipLogic and TU Dortmund in an innovative research project

At ShipLogic, innovation is a key part of our work. So when a Technical University reaches out for a collaboration, we’re interested! That’s how we became involved in an exciting research project with a vintage twist.

When the Technical University of Dortmund in Germany approached us some time ago about collaborating on a research project, we were immediately interested – especially when we discovered the topic was... VHF radio. Not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of innovation.

And that’s precisely what made it so intriguing. In Germany, VHF communication between shipmasters and port authorities is more strictly regulated than in many other countries – and that opens the door to automation, an interesting insight in itself. This is exactly what the ‘Autonomous Natural Language Communication’ project at TU Dortmund focuses on. The aim of the project is to automatically convert spoken communication into a vessel visit in ShipLogic, where ShipLogic supports the process by exchanging data to help correlate and validate the results.

As part of this project, ShipLogic is providing its system for the automatic planning of vessel visits and is collaborating with TU’s software to further improve the reliability of the results.

Thanks in part to the excellent collaboration with Dr Ing. Puzicha’s team, the initial results have been positive, and the university is now preparing a proposal for a three-year follow-up project.

We’re proud of this unique partnership and look forward to the next step in this promising initiative.

Curious how ShipLogic can support the digitalisation of your port operations? We’d be happy to talk.

Manfred Suttorp