Fore/aft drift
Travel along the berth that keeps going instead of swinging back. This is the one that alarms.
WARN / ALARM Marine drift & draft monitoring
Every tanker,
Every tanker,
to within 10 mm.
DriftScout measures how far a moored tanker travels along the berth, and how far she rises as cargo comes off. Ten readings a second, to better than 10 mm. One sensor on the jetty. One coded panel on the hull.
Nothing is drilled, welded or bonded to the vessel, and nobody goes aboard. Navitrak lidar measures standoff to the fenders. See how it measures. < 10 mm at 12 m 10 Hz Alarms on drift + rotation SCADA · Modbus · OPC UA
The problem
Never truly still
Lines stretch. The tide works her up and down. A passing vessel sets up a surge along the berth. All of it works the moorings and the marine loading arm during cargo transfer, and nobody on the jetty can say how far she has moved until the arm alarms or a line goes. DriftScout puts a number on it while there is still time to tend the lines.
Draft change
She rises evenly as cargo comes off, and moves with the tide. Expected, so it is reported and never alarms.
ReportedRotation
Fore and aft draft changing by unequal amounts. She is trimming, not rising evenly, so this one alarms on its own thresholds.
WARN / ALARMStandoff
How far off the fenders she sits. Navitrak lidar measures the distance from berth to hull.
Reported Even movement is expected, uneven movement is not. She will
rise and she will sit off the fenders, so neither alarms. Travelling along the
berth and trimming out of level are the two that do.
How it measures
From hull panel to control-room alarm
A fixed optical sensor on the jetty watches a coded panel on the hull and reads its movement. Calibration happens once, at commissioning. You only repeat it if something about the site changes.
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Detect
The sensor finds the coded panel and holds the lock. Until it has one, the console shows no number rather than a wrong one.
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Measure
Panel movement resolves into travel along the berth, change in draft, and rotation. Navitrak lidar adds the standoff to the fenders.
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Check
Wave action is not drift. DriftScout separates the two, then checks travel and rotation against the limits set for that class of vessel.
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Act
WARN and ALARM reach every console, the beacon and horn, and the PLC. Each one is recorded and has to be acknowledged.
< 10 mm
Fore/aft accuracy @ 12 m
10 Hz
Update rate
300 × 300 mm
Target panel
400 g
Target mass
The target
A magnet and a printed pattern
On once she is all fast, off before she unmoors. Nothing is drilled, welded or bonded, and nothing stays on the hull after she sails.
- Weather- and UV-resistant panel 300 × 300 × 40 mm, high-contrast coded surface.
- Four magnetic studs About 400 g. On the hull in seconds.
- Fitted from the jetty Terminal staff place it with the supplied pole, a couple of minutes either end.
- Nothing to fit to the ship No rig, and no call on ship’s power.
The console
One console for the whole berth
The same application on the control-room wall display and on a phone at the gangway. It also accepts hand-gesture commands, for when you are on the jetty in gloves.
The audit trail
From the baseline onwards DriftScout keeps the measurements, the state changes, the alarms and who acknowledged them. Export it as CSV or PDF when an auditor asks.
CSV · PDF · Alarm history · Audit log Capabilities
For a working terminal
A number the control room can act on during cargo transfer, and no extra work for ship’s staff.
Two alarm conditions
Travel along the berth and rotation each carry their own WARN and ALARM thresholds per vessel class. Draft and standoff are reported and never alarm. Every alarm is stored with the reading that caused it and the name of whoever acknowledged it.
Wave motion filteredLocked calibration
Lens calibration runs once and the berth axis aligns itself. Lock it and neither a restart nor the API can overwrite it.
Locked once setDirect to the PLC
Modbus and OPC UA put every sensor in front of your PLC or DCS, with a direct alarm output and a heartbeat the watchdog can follow.
SCADA-readyCommissioning bench
Protocol emulators and scripted drills prove the integration before anyone wires a PLC.
No bench hardwareUnattended operation
You read the logs in the browser. DriftScout writes a backup on every boot.
No daily checksOne berth or the whole port
The same measurement engine drives one sensor or twenty. Run it on its own, or inside your existing platform.
One sensor or twenty Industrial I/O
Straight into your control system
DriftScout publishes drift, alarm level and a heartbeat over Modbus and OPC UA. Both read the same values, so the control room and the terminal platform cannot show you different numbers.
Modbus
Native TCP, RTU or serial. Live values and alert level, a direct alarm output, and a heartbeat your PLC can watch.
PLC / DCSOPC UA
Every reading is a typed variable your control system can browse and subscribe to. No mapping table to maintain.
Browseable tagsWebhooks & MQTT
Fire beacons and IP speakers on an event. A REST API and a live WebSocket stream cover everything else.
REST / WebSocket Where it sits in your safety case. An early alarm on
sustained drift gives the terminal time to tend the lines or stop the transfer.
That time runs out when the marine loading arm reaches the limit of its
operating envelope. Measuring drift is how you get it. DriftScout publishes the
alarm to every console and to the PLC. Your own cause-and-effect assessment
decides what that alarm then trips. DriftScout does not actuate ESD on its own.
Deployment
On its own, or inside your platform
Start at one berth on its own. Add sensors as other berths come online, and they share a single operating picture.
Standalone
One berth, one box. Storage is built in, so there is no database to set up. DriftScout runs within a day.
Single berthPlatform-integrated
Reports into the terminal’s own platform, so the same berth history is visible where your operators already work.
Port-wide Where standoff comes from. Travel, draft and rotation all
come off the hull target. The distance from berth to hull is read by short-range
3D lidars from Navitrak, our berthing-aid
system. DriftScout also runs inside Navitrak, so berthing and drift sit on one
platform.
Specifications
The numbers, provisionally
These firm up during detailed engineering and the site acceptance test. We prove every installation by moving the target a known distance and checking what the console reads back.
FAQ
Questions from terminal teams
Answered straight, including the parts that need a site survey.
What happens in darkness, fog or rain?
It is built for an outdoor berth and it runs at night. Heavy fog and driving rain shorten the usable range, which is why we survey each berth first and write the working envelope into the acceptance test rather than quoting one figure for every site.
How is the sensor powered and mounted on the jetty?
It bolts to fixed jetty structure, usually a gangway tower or a bollard column, and takes a standard industrial power feed. Your team picks the mounting point with us during scoping.
How long does the target stay on the hull, and who fits it?
Terminal staff fit it once she is all fast and take it off before she sails, a couple of minutes either end, using the supplied pole. Nobody boards the vessel.
What happens on power loss or sensor failure?
DriftScout sends a heartbeat alongside every measurement. If the heartbeat stops, the operator and the SCADA system both see it at once. A silent DriftScout always shows as a fault, never as a berth with nothing to report.
Does it alarm on draft change?
No, and that is deliberate. Draft is measured, reported and on the outputs, but it never alarms. The two alarm conditions are sustained travel along the berth and rotation, each with its own WARN and ALARM thresholds per vessel class.
How is standoff to the fenders measured?
Short-range 3D lidars from Navitrak, our berthing-aid system, measure the distance from hull to fender. Travel, draft and rotation all come from the hull target. See navitrak.io.
Can it monitor more than one berth?
Yes. One installation covers a single berth, or several sensors work together across a port and share one operating picture.
Contact
About your berth
Tell us about your terminal and we will come back with a monitoring layout and an accuracy figure for your berth.
Email us info@metratek.co.uk · reply within one business day.
What you get. The optical sensor, the coded panel and its
handling pole, the operator console and the SCADA interfaces. Your terminal
staff or your appointed maintenance contractor install it. We guide the work
and stay through the site acceptance test.
Scoping details
Four lines is enough for a first pass.
- Terminal and berthLocation, jetty structure, where a sensor could mount.
- Vessels you handleClass and typical LOA. Crude, product, LNG or gas carrier.
- What you run todayBerthing aid, SCADA or DCS, and how alarms reach the control room.
- TimelineSurvey, commissioning window or tender return date.