Photo by Orca AI Orca AI, a London-based company focused on maritime autonomous navigation, recently launched its newest software feature, Co-Captain. Co-founders Yarden Gross and Dor Raviv started the company in 2018. Their overarching mission is to improve maritime safety and efficiency through responsible technological innovation. Co-Captain serves as your mothership, an inspiring network of vessels. It tracks what’s happening around the world, sharing their experiences and lessons learned which help make our shared seas safer for everyone.
Onboard the Mayflower, the Co-Captain feature collects data from sensors across the ship’s ecosystem. This improves ship efficiency while making sea trade safer for ships everywhere. Developed by the [made-for-RUE U.S.] For one, it takes into account key elements such as the length and width of each vessel. The number of maritime incidents has increased by 22 percent in recent years. This frightening trend driven by aging ships and equipment malfunctions underscores the need for solutions like Co-Captain now more than ever.
“Co-Captain is a network of vessels using Orca to capture events worldwide and share insights,” said Yarden Gross, CEO and co-founder of Orca AI. “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.”
The platform, which has already been adopted in production on greater than 1200 vessels, shows its scalability and effectiveness. Pain points solved Co-Captain enhances operational performance by automatically uploading collected data to the cloud. This creative approach addresses other important maritime safety issues. The system quickly disseminates time-sensitive safety notifications such as GPS jamming, inclement weather, and increased congestion. This allows vessels to travel through safer waters and provides privacy to the ships providing the reports.
“Every ship acts as a node in a larger network, and each node—the vessel itself—has an onboard AI platform,” Gross added. This interconnectedness teaches us that through collaboration and cooperation, we can work better together to address our shared maritime challenges. By improving data-sharing capabilities, Co-Captain radically improves real-time situational awareness for any ship operating in complex or dangerous environments.
Orca AI’s dedication to maritime safety doesn’t end with Co-Captain. The company is currently developing this exciting new feature with multiple bridge systems. This exciting effort will greatly simplify and ease the process for maritime operators tremendously. This smart integration will further empower ship crews with AI-assisted capabilities. It will enable them to implement outcomes-focused policies and make more effective real-time decisions based on the data.
The maritime industry experiences these incidents on a daily basis. In reply, Co-Captain of Orca AI explores an exciting new proactive approach that will better protect against these high stakes situations. The platform’s holistic approach to addressing these challenges directly overlaps with industry priorities to create better navigational aids and manage risks.