Onboard: the Internet of Ships
The platform for international shipping
Tug boats sail at sea in the sun-drenched Bahamas. The crew are hard at work, but how can we ensure that they are working efficiently? How do we verify they’re not wasting fuel or misusing time, that they are at the optimal location or if they are well-informed about their tasks? In the past, the answer lay in a combination of paperwork and guesswork. Those times are now in the past, thanks to the solution developed by Luminis and shipping start-up Onboard: the Onboard-platform.
Insights into large amounts of data
The Onboard-platform utilizes products developed by Luminis.
By using a combination of our data platform (Information Grid), together with a centralized solution built in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud using a number of innovative open source projects, a powerful platform was realized in a short period of time. The platform enables insight into large amounts of valuable data in a safe and straightforward way.
With the help of our technology, Onboard have successfully built an IoT-platform suitable for an innovative company, enabling this start-up to effectively put itself on the map.
Our solution consists of:
- A range of on-board applications with which the crew can keep track of all information and data on an iPad while receiving real-time insights into that data, including usage;
- An embedded server on board which receives all data from other on-board systems. Whenever a connection is available, the server sends this data to the shore;
- A centralized system, firmly rooted in the AWS Cloud, which receives all data from the ships, which is used by various applications for analysis and prediction;
- A variety of onshore applications that can analyze ship data, schedule orders and compare ship behaviour;
- An update mechanism which enables software installed on ships to be updated remotely.
Florus Wilming (Onboard co-founder) on collaborating with Luminis:
“We were looking for an experienced and competent Dutch partner capable of developing our design from A to Z.
The initial conversations with Luminis sparked our enthusiasm immediately, most notably because Luminis has a track record of delivering solutions of this kind. As a result, they had solutions ready for the critical issues we were encountering. Luminis was able to conceptualize and sketch out the product from the early stages of development; this gave us confidence in their capabilities.
We created a true partnership with Luminis, that ultimately benefited both parties. If you let the small print of your contract determine how you execute the development of a product, you can run into challenges. On this front, Luminis proved they were interested in being our partner, and that enabled us to achieve great success together. Luminis demonstrated that they are serious about investing in our relationship, and we take the same approach.”
“We have developed the first phase, which has yielded great results, and we’re now ready to take the product further. We look forward to taking our collaboration to the next level together. It’s good to keep challenging one another, it keeps both parties on their toes. Luminis also does this impeccably; you express a commitment to one another, you both commit to the product, you open yourselves to feedback from both parties and make it happen. A satisfied client is the result.
Luminis has, in my opinion, a clear and compelling proposition. They are not only an expertise company that assigns people to customer’s projects, Luminis also develops technologies in-house; this is incredibly interesting. Luminis harbours an enormous pool of experts, and that is very important to us.
We want to continue to build this product with Luminis. Our collaboration with Luminis is essential to taking our next steps. We are super enthusiastic and looking forward to continue building with Luminis next year.”
