Palladium

From the Bridge - a "Case Study of a Redesigned Integrated Bridge"

 Written by Michael E. Blake and published by The Yacht Report: Issue 91, February 2008

In March of 2006 the Captain of M/Y Ronin contacted Palladium Technologies, Inc. requesting that they design a modern bridge that would reflect the contemporary feel of the refitted Lurssen interior, as the current helm was the original, circa 1993.  Since M/Y Ronin’s owner was the CEO of one of the most successful software companies in the world, the selection of Palladium Technologies to implement this upgrade to the helm would seem a logical request. The Palladium design team flew to Acapulco, Mexico for a site survey and to investigate the full scope of the work involved.

Once back in Florida they went to work creating an ergonomic and highly functional glass bridge for future installation in San Diego. 3-D digital renderings were supplied for review, followed by  a complete mock up of the actual bridge design that was built at their production facility and presented to the client for approvals.  Considerable design time was directed by Palladium in the creation of the integrated instrument helm panels.  These panels contained all of the functionality of the old system, but in a more elegant flat panel which provided the clean look that the owner and Captain required.  The focus for layout of the soft switches involved considerable dialog with the Captain, allowing for the exact positioning, and provided a panel design that grouped the most critical and high usage switch functions closest to the center of the helm.

Once Palladium’s designs were accepted, the team went into production creating aluminum substructures for the custom soft switch panels with full dimming and backlighting capabilities.  These specialized panels supplied over 180 switching points for such items as the ship’s horn, emergency engine telegraphing, engine controls, wiper controls, B&G switching, video switching, a SiMON controller to emulate the functions of the Kahlenberg horn controller, nine custom cutouts for existing navigation hardware and a Simon 50mm Trackball with multicolor notification and dimming control.

The true challenge was to integrate the old technology that was not being replaced, into the new helm. This was done by removing all existing components and carefully labeling hundreds of respective cables for installation of the new panels, LCD’s, matrix video switch, etc..  Once the European contractors finished the cabinetry, the new 64” x 23” helm control panel which consisted of three pieces were fitted together and prepared for wiring.   Seven 21” Nauticomp Sunlight viewable displays were placed “glass bridge style” across the upper viewing plane. From the custom helm panels, the Captain could simply select any of the radars, ECDIS, cameras, engine monitoring, etc., to view on one or all of the LCD displays.  To finish this high tech bridge both a NavLight Panel and Deck Light Panel (MIMIC’s) were placed port and starboard respectively, flanking the main helm.  Each of these panels provide the full monitoring of these lights, along with control via the soft-switches at a glance.

This project also integrated a custom SiMON system which included a custom designed monitoring screen for the MTU engines, a SiMON anchor system, and a SiMON Pitch and Roll system.  SiMON Smart Star Controllers were interfaced to critical systems onboard providing a simple gateway for all of this electronic data.

During the middle of this project with hundreds of wires all hanging loose, all of a critical nature for safe operation of the vessel, a bystander could not help but comment, “how on earth are the Palladium Engineers ever going to get this up and running again”? Success of a project like this can be attributed to a number of key factors and they are;
• Project planning, which carefully constructs the plan of action
• A customer whom is involved, but respects the talents of the vendor
• Engineering and design that is invested heavily on the front end of the project
• A talented team, with a “Can Do” attitude.

Upon completion, the Captain was truly amazed not only with Palladium’s quality of the workmanship, but with the fact that the project was done on schedule and that all of the old equipment worked effectively once the maze of wires were reinstalled with their respective components.  This success was attributed to all parties whom were involved in this major bridge refit.

Today, M/Y Ronin has a “State of the Art”, ergonomically pleasing, and highly functional bridge.

Alarm Monitoring System Human Machine Interface Must Be Based on Real-World Experience from Captains and Crew

Written by Michael E. Blake and published by The Yacht Report: Issue 81, February 2007

In recent years, we have seen explosive growth in the complexity of onboard systems for modern Megayachts. These powerful systems can provide a wealth of data for the captain and crew, but manning has not increased proportionally. This can result in data overload – a potentially dangerous condition on a vessel at sea.

The megayacht’s alarm monitoring system (AMS) serves as a virtual additional crewmember, constantly scanning hundreds, if not thousands of sensor data points, looking for anomalies and alerting the crew whenever an out-of-tolerance condition is detected. A fundamental challenge for companies in the AMS sector is how to manage, integrate and present critical information in a way that can be clearly and quickly comprehended so that appropriate actions can be taken in a timely manner. The human machine interface (HMI) is the critical component. We all know from experience that when things start to go awry on a vessel at sea there is no time to scroll through dozens of screens trying to find the critical information needed to make an important decision quickly. The safety of the ship, its crew and its passengers may be at stake. The question is sometimes posed this way. Which is more important -- content or presentation? The short answer, from our point of view, is both. This is why the design of an effective HMI must be based on solid and proven concepts. These are: Understanding the needs and requirements of the user.

1. Screen layouts
2. Screens navigation

It cannot be emphasized too strongly that the vital starting point is to understand the needs and requirements of the user. The design engineers and software experts creating the AMS for a megayacht cannot function in an “ivory tower.” That’s why we spend a great deal of time every day listening to the captains, officers and engineers who use our SiMON systems. Each sea trial brings back to our offices solid ideas that become integrated into subsequent software releases. It is this wealth of user knowledge that makes a truly effective AMS. Screen layouts can have many different flavors, from industrial-looking data-rich screens to the “pretty” graphics-rich color screens. Developing a set of screen layouts to present complex engineering data sets is more of a challenge than you might think. While color graphics displays may be more visually appealing, the overuse of graphics and bright, bold color schemes may actually kill the objective you are trying to achieve. Layouts must be presented in a clean, crisp fashion, taking into consideration the way the human eyes and brain process visual data. The eyes typically go first to the upper left part of the screen and progress to the right, then diagonally down to the bottom left, then horizontally to the bottom right. The on-screen presentation of tabular data and gauges should show only the information that is required for the operation of that system or function. The system designer can easily give into the temptation to crowd the screen with too much information. In designing our screens, we recognize that the human brain works best when processing information in groups of seven. These groups of seven data sets can include gauges, data or text blocks. Good designs, we have found, are based on this rule of sevens. The third component is screen navigation. How often have you tried to find that one all-important screen that contains the information you need to make a decision, only to get hopelessly lost in endless menus and submenus? A well-designed HMI should provide the means for the user to navigate quickly and easily to any screen. I have always felt that a user should be able to navigate within two or three clicks of the mouse to see any screen in the AMS. The use of a navigation bar with clearly marked tabs should present a road map to make it easy to drill down through the layers to find the information needed quickly. In summary, the key to creating a practical and effective AMS tool for the modern megayacht, is listening, listening and listening again to the users. I believe there’s no substitute for actual seagoing experience for system designers, and it should be a prerequisite for anyone who looks to enter this business. Then it’s a matter of presenting the right combination of data in a pleasing, easy-to-comprehend format on the screen that reflects the real-world needs of captain and crew, and designing an intuitive and logical navigation scheme for accessing needed information.