The first Becker Intelligent Monitoring System (BIMS) was installed on the new Car Carrier MV Titania of Wilh. Wilhelmsen at the end of February. BIMS is an innovative development to enhance capabilities of high-performance manoeuvring. The new system is monitoring current forces and torque on the rudder while processing and storing the data in a computer unit. The unit can be integrated via standard interfaces into a vessels network to make current and processed rudder data available to any system also connected to the network. BIMS provides an additional input to improve or refine navigation, positioning, performance control and load monitoring. The first analysis of the force and torque data of operation in the North Sea gave an interesting glace on the dynamic of manoeuvring and its complexity, considering seaway and vessel motion, etc. It also showed that standard prediction methods in general derived from steady conditions are clearly limited. BIMS is an innovative tool to monitor actual conditions and apply optimum helm angles for instance to maximise rudder force or minimise drag. The Becker Intelligent Monitoring System was developed by Becker Marine Systems in close cooperation with M.A.C. System Solutions and for dynamic positing applications as KBIMS together with Kongsberg Maritime.

The new monitoring system represents a further step for the enrichment of capabilities of Becker Marine Systems’ products towards system integration and condition monitoring, which will be continuously developed further.