Ship&Offshore | Issue 04/2017
Big data for big ships
digitalisation While the maritime industry continues to adopt specific forms of digitalisation for process automation, the first cyber-physical systems and cloud-based network structures, which will ultimately optimise maritime operations, still have a long way to go before they are ready for sea travel. German maritime equipment suppliers in particular are convinced that maritime digitalisation (Maritime 4.0) will enable them to achieve enormous gains in commercial shipping efficiency. The following article by Norman Südekum from Wago, a multinational German company specialising in electrical connectors, interface modules and automation products, asks what big data actually has to offer for the maritime sector, and what new challenges are linked to these massive data sets.