Orca AI’s Co-Captain Transforms Ship Navigation

A new onboard system allows ocean vessels to share real-time data on sea conditions, giving crews early warnings and helping them navigate more safely. The system will analyze data related to navigation, ship behavior and the environment to guide ship crews at sea.

While the number of casualties from ship collisions and groundings has declined, the overall number of maritime incidents is on the rise, up 22% in recent years, due to aging vessels and equipment breakdowns.

Orca AI, an autonomous maritime navigation company based in London, has introduced a software feature called Co-Captain, aimed at reducing these incidents. Co-Captain is an addition to the company’s existing SeaPod real-time decision support system, which bridge officers can use at sea to better navigate.

The co-captain provides information on severe weather conditions, including recommendations to specific vessels based on their size and shape.AI Orc

“Co-Captain is a network of ships using Orca to capture events around the world and share information. Think of it like the navigation app you use in your car: it tells you in advance about traffic or roadblocks so you can adjust your route,” says Yarden Gross, CEO and co-founder of Orca AI.

Gross says Co-Captain frequently collects data from sensors onboard ships and sends it to the cloud to improve the performance and safety of ships around the world.

Orca AI maritime solutions

OrcaAI, founded in 2018 by Gross and CTO Dor Raviv, started with SeaPod and Fleet View. While SeaPod collects and analyzes data on individual vessels, Fleet View brings this data together in the cloud to give shore-based fleet managers greater visibility into larger operations.

Co-Captain integrates with existing system to provide proactive insights to improve fleet performance and safety. Today, ship officers rely on tools such as radar, automatic identification system (AIS), and electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) to monitor the position of other ships and avoid collisions, but much of the work remains manual.

The co-captain identifies various navigational hazards for a ship’s crew. The crew can also manually identify obstacles or other problems.AI Orc

Gross described Co-Captain as the next generation of AIS, the network that transmits basic information such as a vessel’s position, name and heading via very high frequency (VHF) signals ranging from 30 to 300 megahertz. Unlike AIS, which only tracks a vessel’s position, the co-captain also monitors conditions on board. For example, if a vessel reports a pitch of 3 degrees and a roll of 5 degrees in rough seas, the co-captain uses this data to anticipate the impact of current conditions on nearby vessels, tailoring it to their size and design. The co-captain then sends personalized recommendations to the crews of these ships.

“Each ship acts as a node in a larger network, and each node – the ship itself – has an onboard AI platform. This platform collects data from multiple sensors in real time,” Gross explains. Using cameras and computer vision, the AI ​​model can detect bad weather, low visibility, high waves or strong winds, then the platform analyzes the data to provide personalized advice.

All data is anonymized. Gross says a ship’s movements, timing or route can reveal valuable information. “By anonymizing the data, the co-captain can share critical safety alerts such as GPS interference, severe weather or heavy traffic without ever revealing which vessel reported it or where it came from.”

Gross says Orca AI is working to integrate Co-Captain with more gateway systems, such as Navigational Telex (NAVTEX) and ECDIS, so that relevant alerts and updates are centralized.

The company’s long-term goal is to provide real-time notifications focused on the most important events on a vessel’s route, giving captains information they can act on quickly to support safer and more efficient operations. The platform is already used on more than 1,200 vessels.