Customer Success Story

NI Technology Strengthens Unique Vessel Positioning System

The challenge was to develop a unique automated vessel (commercial ship) positioning system for The St. Lawrence Seaway Management Corporation that would reduce vessel transit time and result in lower operational costs. The system had to integrate hardware and software for continuous reliable operation in the outdoor marine environment of the Seaway locks.

We leveraged LabVIEW RT, FPGA, and LabWindows CVI deployed on NI PXI and NI CompactRIO controllers to create the Vessel Self-Spotting System (VSSS), the first of its kind in the world to be driven by NI technology. The system resolves technical challenges related to real-time motion control, 3-D image processing, multiple industrial Ethernet protocols, and rugged outdoor conditions.

The St. Lawrence Seaway is composed of a network of locks that make up one of the world’s most spectacular lift systems. Ships measuring up to 225.5 meters in length (or 740 feet, twice as long as a football field) are routinely raised to more than 180 meters above sea level, as high as a 60-story building. Due to the scale of these operations, mooring position accuracy is critical. Using a laser beam to sweep the moving vessel and form a 3-D image, the VSSS measures the vessel’s exact distance in meters from its final mooring position, and communicates it to the vessel captain through both a display panel and an automated radio transmission. This is accomplished by integrating powerful vision algorithms to precisely locate the foremost point of the ship bow, for ships of different shape, height, and color shading.