The next-generation version of MARINELINK, MARINELINK-Smart, "expands upon this to provide live shore-side and onboard advice to ship’s crew and data analytics to increase operational and maintenance efficiencies and passenger comfort".

“Austal is the world’s largest designer and builder of high speed aluminium vessels. We have always had to deliver highly efficient ships to achieve the demanding speed and fuel consumption requirements of our customers, so operational efficiency has always been very important to us,” said Austal CEO David Singleton.

“Building on our unique knowledge of high-speed craft, our technology development team has created a vessel performance optimisation system that fundamentally understands and reflects the operation of these vessels in a way that hasn’t been possible up until now.

“We have a number of technology development teams working across multiple initiatives to ensure our vessels continue to redefine what is possible and set the standard in next-generation technology. We have been working with the University of Western Australia, ship operators and technology partners on our MARINELINK-Smart platform and the technology is now being trialled throughout the Fred. Olsen Express fleet. As our biggest commercial client, Fred. Olsen S.A. is the perfect partner for the roll out of this next-generation technology."

The new MARINELINK-Smart uses machine learning, artificial intelligence and internet of things technology to create an "adaptive and predictive" operational performance management system.