Co-Captain, an innovative new software feature launched by London-based Orca AI, is designed to change that paradigm. This new, innovative tool is designed to increase safety at sea and reduce maritime disasters. Co-Captain operates as a potent collective of ships. It leverages Orca’s next-generation platform to record events around the world and bring useful learnings between ships. Yet maritime incidents have increased by 22 percent in recent years. This troubling increase further highlights the need for safer, more innovative technology.
Co-Captain uses this same data, collected from voluntary ship reports, to predict how prevailing sea conditions will affect vessels in the vicinity. Co-Captain examines all this information to continually improve its predictions. This adaptation takes into account the size and design of these ships that operate around them, improving navigational safety and performance.
More than 1,200 vessels have already implemented Co-Captain, which gathers data from real-time sensors onboard and predicts the best route to take. Then the system moves this data to the cloud for more processing. From there, it produces actionable insights that guide ships through complicated maritime surroundings. The software addresses increasing worries over older ships. It aims to head off equipment failures that cause even more maritime disasters.
By streamlining communication, Co-Captain improves safety and helps ship captains maintain their focus by gathering all relevant alerts and updates into one centralized location. Removing identifying information from the data makes it possible to share important, life-saving safety notices. This entails warnings for GPS interference, severe weather, and high traffic, while still protecting the privacy of reporting vessels.
“Every ship acts as a node in a larger network, and each node—the vessel itself—has an onboard AI platform. This platform collects data from multiple sensors in real time,” – Yarden Gross.
This cutting edge in-water network approach keeps vessels aware in real-time so they can adjust their routes accordingly and in time. As Yarden Gross explains, “Think of it like the navigation app you use in your car: it tells you about traffic or roadblocks in advance so you can adjust your route.”
Beyond providing navigational insights, Co-Captain can predict how conditions will impact a ship’s pitch and roll. This capability is especially valuable in choppy open ocean conditions, where rugged stability is a key element of safe operation. Co-Captain is hard at work adding compatibility with additional bridge systems. This area features Navigational Telex (NAVTEX) and Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS), which will make its capabilities and impact still further.
Orca AI Fueling the Future with Data Orka AI is leading the charge of using real-time data and predictive analytics. One, it puts the company at the fore of the race in autonomous navigation. The company’s determination to stop at most two incidents from occurring at sea demonstrates its priority to keep crews and vessels safe.
As the maritime industry embraces innovation through technological advancements, Co-Captain is proving itself to be a 21st century critical shipping tool. It represents a new era of intelligent navigation systems, focusing on safety, using the power of AI and machine learning.