Easolas-LSA: an expert system for determining number of life-saving appliances based on requirement of International Convention for The Safety of Life At Sea

摘要

International Convention for the Safety of Life At Sea (SOLAS) stated how to determine the number of life-saving appliances required on board ships covered by the convention. Calculation of life-saving appliances refers to several regulations in Chapter III of SOLAS convention. However, there is a possibility of misinterpretation, since there are many different factors to be taken into account in determining number of life-saving appliances, such as gross tonnage, number of crew and passenger, type of ships, type of voyage, and type of cargo. In addition, some supplementary requirements are mentioned in different regulations which could be accidentally not identified. There are several existing android applications in Maritime field, which are mostly rule finder apps or checklist apps. There is no application that serves as an expert system to assist of how to understand regulation regarding the number of LSA required. Therefore, this paper explains an expert system which has capability to determine the number of life-saving appliances easily in a mobile android application. The research was conducted in four stages; identification of the requirements, development of flowchart based on the requirements, development of the android application, and the validation process. The expert system was successfully valid in determining the number of lifejacket, lifebuoy, immersion suits, lifeboat and liferaft, rescue boat, and communications, after being compared with manual calculation for different cases. A trial version has been tested by 9 respondents from different types of shipping stakeholder such as owner surveyor, P&I surveyors, consultant, and shipbuilder lecturers. In average, the respondent satisfaction score is 4.35 in a 5-point scale, emphasizing the most valuable respondents' advice that is to enlarge the font size to increase the convenience in using the application.