Design of a Mobile Application to Assess the Stability of Small Fishing Boats

Abstract

Indonesia is one of the top three countries in the world for fisher fatalities due to a lack of stability monitoring, poor vessel design, and the fishers’ poor safety culture. Improved safety through technology, in particular stability awareness, has been identified as a key aspect to prevent capsizing and sinking. Despite the low technology uptake by Indonesian fishers, they are known to make extensive use of smart mobile phones as a primary form of communication. These phones are equipped with various sensors, including motion sensors that can be used by different mobile applications. This paper proposes the use of a mobile application to aid Indonesian fishers in assessing the stability of their vessel by using results from a roll decay test or realtime roll motion data monitored when operating at sea. For the pre-departure test, the mobile application uses the onboard gyroscope to record the roll angle time series which can then be used to quantify the roll period. An offline calculation is then carried out to approximate the vessel’s metacentric height. This is then visually presented using a traffic light system to provide the fishermen with a simple indication of whether the vessel is stable or not. Should the boat be unstable, additional guidance is provided to improve the vessel’s stability. The realtime monitoring system alerts the fishers when the thresholds are exceeded, to ensure realtime awareness of increased risk to the stability of the vessel.