Aug. 22, 2022 — Navigation is prone to human errors. In addition to their own eyes, captains often have only location-based technologies, maps and perhaps a radar at their disposal. Common reasons for collisions at sea are bad decision making, poor lookout, inefficient use of radar, inexperience, lack of communication, and fatigue, lists Antti Lehmussola, Team Lead for Machine Learning at Groke Technologies in the webinar High Performance Computing for SMEs organized by the EuroCC project earlier this year.

Data from Multiple Sources

The ultimate goal of Groke Technologies is to get rid of human errors at sea and automate navigation through a multi-sensor system that is coupled with deep neural networks and a graphical user interface. The technical solution will combine radar technology, automatic identification system (AIS), visual and thermal cameras, as well as sea charts, inertial measurement units (IMU) and dual band GNSS.

All these sensors and data sources will be installed in a vessel together with several computing units to process the data. There is still work ahead before all of this is in production but in the meantime, many improvements in navigation can be achieved through different awareness systems for captains and vessel operators.

Groke Technologies’ navigation solution is currently in the product development phase. At the moment, AI and machine learning technology is mostly used to process images from a highly specialized camera system that consists of a 225-degree visual camera and a 180-degree thermal camera. By detecting and identifying objects around a vessel from the side of another vessel to a far-away sea buoy it helps to improve the captains’ situational awareness and perception of their vessels’ surroundings. In the future, other sensors’ information will be handled through machine learning too, explains Lehmussola. All this can eventually enable fully automated vessels.

Training Machine-Learning Models with Supercomputing

High-performance computing is an important asset in developing products and services. HPC enables companies to perform massive calculations within a short period of time and allows them to replace time-consuming physical prototyping with simulations. As a result, companies can accelerate the product development process, cut research and development cost and create new innovations.

With the financial support from Business Finland´s AI Business program and computing resources provided by CSC – IT Center for Science, Groke Technologies is now training their machine learning model and investigating how to build deep neural networks for object detection with the optimal trade-off between accuracy and performance. This not an easy task because there are hundreds of different machine learning architectures available for object detection alone but with the HPC experts’ support they are making good progress.

Digitization of Navigation

Due to the strategic investment from Mitsubishi Corporation, Groke technologies’ solution will be initially tailored to meet the needs of the Japanese seafaring where it is expected to alleviate the inevitable shortage of sea captains. Japanese vessels are not allowed to sail under Japanese flag unless the captains´ nationality is Japanese, and many of the local captains are already in the later stages of their careers. The data-driven high-technology navigation solution is expected to draw younger generations into the maritime industry.

LUMI Supercomputer for Industrial Use

LUMI is Europe’s flagship supercomputer. It plays an important role in the endeavor of the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) to develop a world-class supercomputing ecosystem in Europe.

The versatile architecture of LUMI makes it also one of the world’s leading platforms for artificial intelligence. Up to 20% of LUMI´s massive computing capacity is reserved for industrial use which offers new exciting opportunities for data-driven business development.

With the ever-increasing computational performance, we can accelerate our machine-learning research and development efforts, and find the most optimal models for our use cases, says Lehmussola.

Have a look at the webinar High Performance Computing for SMEs organized by the EuroCC project:

Source: Anu Märkälä, CSC – IT Center for Science, Finland

Further reflecting the progress that has been made in reducing the danger of piracy off the east coast of Africa and into the Indian Ocean, the shipping industry plans to formally end the “High Risk Area,” designation as of the first of the year. While a level of risk remains, they highlight that there have been no boardings in nearly four years with the last reports coming in 2019 of pirates being scared away by EU forces after menacing a vessel near the Horn of Africa.

The official notification of the plan to end the designation was submitted to the International Maritime Organization, today, August 22, to be reviewed and approved at the next meeting of the Maritime Safety Committee scheduled to start on October 31. 2022. The decision to end the designation was made by the International Chamber of Shipping, BIMCO, International Marine Contractors Association, INTERCARGO, INTERTANKO, and the Oil Companies International Marine Forum.

“This announcement is a testament to nearly 15 years of dedicated collaboration to reduce the threat of piracy in the Indian Ocean. Through a combination of efforts by military, political, civil society, and the shipping industry over the years, operators and seafarers are now able to operate with increased confidence in these waters,” the groups said in their joint statement to the IMO.

The designation of the region as a High Risk Area began in 2010 near the peak of the attacks on ships near the Horn of Africa. Two years earlier, the Council of the European Union adopted an action plan based on UN resolutions, to establish the executive EU military maritime operation for Somalia. Known as Operation ATALANTA, the mission was the deterrence, prevention, and repression of acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast.

At the height of Somali piracy in January 2011, EU Naval Force – Somalia reports there were 736 hostages and 32 ships being held by pirates. The combined efforts contributed to a reduction in activity so that two years later they were able to report that there had been no successful hijackings of a commercial vessel and the last confirmed attack on a vessel came in 2018. EU NavFor reported that it chased away a small boat in 2019 but Iran has continued to report that its navy has intervened in recent attacks. The EU mission was extended in 2020 to continue to patrol the waters and specifically to protect commercial ships in the World Food Program and others that might be vulnerable to attack. EU NavFor’s mandate is currently scheduled to end on December 31, 2022.

The removal of the HRA reflects a significantly improved piracy situation in the region, said the organizations. A year ago, they had reduced the size of the designated region, but they said today the end of the designation would not come till year’s end allowing charterers, shipowners, and operators time to adapt to the changed threat from piracy. The groups continue to warn, however, that threat and risk assessments should still be carried out and ships are still encouraged to report to the UKMTO and register with the Maritime Security Centre for the Horn of Africa under the Voluntary Reporting Area administered by UKMTO.

Late in 2021, the UN Security Council began efforts to scale back and end the international programs in the region. As late as March 2022, the EU expressed, however, concern over ending the program while there remains political unrest in Somalia.
Source: https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/indian-ocean-high-risk-designation-to-be-withdrawn-at-end-of-2022