Tragedies at sea, notably the 2012 Costa Concordia incident, have led to a series of new global safety initiatives and measures. Shortly after the ship went aground off the Italian coast with the loss of 32 lives, the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and the European Cruise Council (ECC) launched a Global Cruise Industry Operational Safety Review.
One of the issues identified in the review was the difficulties faced by both crews and rescue bodies when trying to locate people during the evacuation and abandonment of a ship; a problem that often adds to the number of fatalities in an incident. As passenger ships grow larger, this only makes the issue ever more urgent.
A group of companies involved in wireless technology and the manufacture of safety and life-saving equipment launched the Lynceus project (www.lynceus-project.eu) with the avowed aim of “People localisation for safe ship evacuation during emergency”. Funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme, the project has been developing a wireless sensor network system that can track and locate passengers who are in danger, either onboard a ship or at sea.
A series of personal tracking devices, including sensors on passengers’ lifejackets and wrist bracelets, will enable the network to pinpoint a passenger’s location, movements and even state of health onboard a ship.
Teo Karayannis, LR’s Project Manager and Senior Specialist with LR’s Strategic Research and Technology Policy Group (SRTP), said of the project: “The Lynceus concept provides a very interesting alternative to existing technologies and procedures, whereby an integrated decision support system based on wireless technology can allow the crew to remotely localise and identify passengers – particularly those that for any reason do not follow the expected evacuation process or else require special assistance – and manage the overall process more efficiently.
The ultimate aim is, of course, to ensure all passengers abandon the ship safely and in the minimum possible time.”
Testing and validation of prototype hardware and software system modules are conducted onboard a cruise ship operated by the project consortium partner, Louis Cruises.
The project is led by SignalGeneriX Ltd, a cyprus company as the Project Technical Coordinator.
EURONEWS has made a documentary on the LYNCEUS project, called "Don't Panic".
Click link below to access (for the Euronews documentary video, click the photo on top of screen):
http://www.euronews.com/2014/05/05/don-t-panic/
For more info, click link below for a presentation on this project, by SignalGeneriX Ltd:
http://higherlogicdownload.s3.amazonaws.com/SNAME/a09ed13c-b8c0-4897-9e87-eb86f500359b/UploadedImages/18.04.2013%20Dr.%20Kalis'%20Presentation.pdf
Thanks for your attention, keep safe.
Best regards,
Maritime Cyprus group administration team