ON THE WAY TO THE HARBORS DIGITALIZATION USING COMARK’S LIDAR TECHNOLOGY.

Comark has provided the Italian Harbor Authority of Portoferraio (Livorno) with a vehicle counting and classification system. The aim is to make boarding and disembarking efficient and at the same time to have a real-time data of vehicle’s going on the ferries.

The Tyrrhenian Sea Authority in Italy has thus placed itself at the forefront of the digitization of the harbor, obtaining essential data for the management and optimization of port operations.

COMARK’s project consists of the supply of laser scanner sensors that are part of the LIDAR technology. For each pier, LSR2001 laser sensors have been installed for counting and classifying vehicles during the boarding and disembarking phase from ferries and LSR21 lasers for detecting the ship’s docking when the gate hatch touches the ground. Therefore, when a ship docks and the hatch is lowered, the sensor detects it and informs the control center that the ship is ready for disembarkation and / or embarkation operations. The vehicles are then counted and classified – the harbor will know in real time not only the number of vehicles traveling, but also the type of vehicles (car, motorbike, etc).  The sensor also detects the travel’s direction and if the vehicle is embarking or disembarking from the ferry.

The lasers are managed by control units that communicate with the central server where the software developed by Comark (Omniview) allows you to view the loading and unloading data of each ferry with related vehicle classes. Omniview also allows you to carry out system diagnostics and to process statistics on a daily, monthly, yearly basis.

The great advantage of this system is that of being able to “digitize” the processes and obtain the data requested in real time and viewable both from the control center of Portoferraio and from the offices of the main Port Authority.