New SmartTug Vessel Monitoring Software

Krill Systems, a leading manufacturer of digital marine instrument solutions, announced the release of SmartTug, the third generation vessel monitoring software revolutionizing vessel efficiency and data communication designed for commercial fishing vessels, tugboats and barges. SmartTug aggregates critical vessel sensor data, stores and transmits information to corporate office at a push of a button or automatically at predetermined intervals.

Krill’s revolutionary SmartTug gives commercial management operators the control of receiving on-the-spot, trip log data from their captains for accurate readings to quickly calculate profitability per job. Professional maritime operators need to streamline workload while optimize fuel usage for competitive bidding and higher return. Krill’s new SmartTug software not only displays realtime fuel efficiency data, but with the power of Krill's SQL database captains have the ability to record the start and stop points of a particular trip and send that data directly to operation headquarters. Maritime operators at headquarters can receive instant Excel spreadsheets for same-day billing thus reducing aging receivables. Logging fuel flow and other critical data points will help reduction of emissions by finding the vessel’s ‘sweet spot’.

SmartTug provides user access to information including support for storing all collected sensor data of existing NMEA 2000, NMEA 0183 and Krill Sensor Pods. SmartTug displays real-time streaming data, records and stores any electrical, tank and switching sensors throughout the vessel. Utilizing an industry standard SQL database server, up to 6 months of sensor data can be stored and displayed in an intuitive graphical user interface. The interface consists of an overview window that shows the overall trend of up to any 6 sensors at a time. By adjusting a sliding shaded selection window over the overview display, a detailed graph is shown above for in depth analysis of the sensor of interest. Up to the second, real time streaming sensor data can also be displayed.

Captains and fleet management will now have the ability to quickly spot trends in equipment operating conditions making it possible to predict failure of mechanical equipment before it actually occurs. Key to reducing vessel operating cost and unscheduled downtime Krill’s powerful graphical display and database helps operators keep track of any vessel condition.

Most mechanical systems such as pumps, alternators and rotating shafts exhibit gradually increasing operating temperatures caused by impending bearing failure or restricted pump flow due to blockage. Examples of this may be the engine coolant temperature slowly increasing over time, indicating a possible clogged heat exchanger element. Catastrophic equipment failure is often the result of a series of cascading events that is caused by other conditions.