Intelligent awareness

The system is the first of our Ship Intelligence, remote and autonomous solutions to be developed for commercial marine application. Combining multiple sensors with intelligent software, IA is designed to mitigate the risks navigators face, especially in poor weather conditions, congested waters or at night. Essentially, it gives the master and bridge personnel a supreme understanding of the ship’s surroundings.

IA builds on our extensive experience in research into autonomous vessels, gained through participation in the Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications project.

The system builds a 3D map of the vessel based on light detection and ranging (LIDAR), which uses a pulsed laser beam to measure distances. Already in use in autonomous road vehicles, it links to GPS data to create 3D environments, allowing crews to ‘see’ what the human eye can’t.

LIDAR creates a ‘point cloud,’ firing about 300,000 beams of light from a laser and then measuring the time taken to reflect them back to source to render a 3D map.

Further spatial information is gathered from on-board HD cameras, linked to software which can identify vessels or objects and apply learning algorithms to determine characteristics, such as how fast a vessel travels or stops.

LIDAR, GPS, camera data, radar and AIS combine through what we refer to as 'data fusion' to provide those controlling the ship with a complete overview of its surroundings. A ship’s crew can then switch between a 3D map rendered by LIDAR, a radar overlay or a topographical view of the seabed.

Markus Hirvonen, Technical Product Manager – Situational Awareness Systems, said: “We can use IA in any ship type where there’s a need for better situational awareness. The system is the first of its kind to be made commercially available, using data in a clear user interface to enhance safety and efficiency.”