Freight transport activities are projected to increase significantly in next years, transforming the current mobility and logistics processes to become more efficient. Nowadays, only 3% of container terminals are automatized. However, the future of the port industry point towards smart ports since it is the only way to overcome the challenges and demands that arise in the sector, optimizing port operations, enhancing the supply chain of operators and carriers, and reducing the emissions and waste. Apart from that, the maritime port infrastructure is quite complex. A large number of agents interferes in each port operation thus stagnant silos of information are produced and the real potential of the data cannot be obtained.
Moreover, the mobility and logistics sector can benefit radically from big data technologies, as it already manages massive flows of goods and people whilst generating vast datasets that support innovative Big Data solutions. Big Data can deliver 28% improvement in asset management via predictive maintenance, and an improvement of operational efficiency of 5% via real-time data visualization and predictive analytics. To contextualize, a 10% improvement in efficiency can lead to cost savings of EUR 100 billion in the whole transport sector.
From these needs appears the DataPorts project, a Data Platform for the Cognitive Ports of the Future. The project is devoted to take advantage of the huge amount of data generated around modern connected seaports, and the digitalization that these ports have achieved leveraging on the existing digital platforms and tools. The overall ambition of DataPorts is to implement, set-up and operate an industrial data platform, that will provide the actors of the port communities a secure and trusted environment for the reliable and efficient share and trading of their data. The data coming from different stakeholders and external sources can be combined and processed in the platform to get real value from them, in order to improve existing processes, establish novel cognitive and AI-based applications, and allow new business models.
