Orca AI, a London-based autonomous maritime navigation company, has recently launched an innovative software feature to navigate the high seas—Co-Captain. Focusing on the operational side, Yarden Gross and Dor Raviv co-founded Orca AI in 2018. Their mission is to improve maritime safety globally by using high technology to address growing maritime accidents.
Co-Captain operates as a network of vessels that utilize Orca AI’s technology to capture and share insights on events worldwide. Through extensive testing with the platform’s onboard sensors, the Co-Captain platform learns to improve the driver experience. It then transmits this vital data to the cloud, optimizing ship efficiency and security. It analyzes real-time data to anticipate how current conditions will affect nearby ships, taking into account each vessel’s size and design.
Over the past five years, maritime accidents have spiked by 22 percent. This troubling increase underscores the critical importance of progress within the industry. Some have started to blame this increase on aging vessels and equipment failures. Even though the number of casualties related to ship collision or grounding has dropped, the total amount of incidents on the water keeps increasing.
Addressing such dangers also highlighting the need made by Co-Captain, Yarden Gross, CEO of Orca AI, believes that it’s essential to mitigate these problems. He describes the platform as a future-proof tool that all ships can plug into, sharing data within an ever-larger network.
“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
Along with improving safety by sharing data, Co-Captain anonymizes shared information so that vessel identities aren’t disclosed. This allows for the faster dissemination of important safety notices. GPS interference, severe weather, high traffic… get the critical information as needed, while always protecting the identity of the reporter.
“By anonymizing the data, Co-Captain can share critical safety alerts such as GPS interference, severe weather, or high traffic without ever exposing which vessel reported it or where it came from,” – Yarden Gross
With the platform already deployed on more than 1,200 vessels and growing rapidly, its potential impact will only increase in scale and scope. To have even wider applicability, Orca AI has been working on integrating Co-Captain with other bridge systems. This includes Navigational Telex (NAVTEX) and Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS), which will greatly increase the overall usefulness of it for mariners.
Gross likens Co-Captain’s functionality to that of a popular navigation app found in many cars today.
“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,” – Yarden Gross
Orca AI initially made waves with products such as SeaPod and Fleet View. Nonetheless, these groundbreaking innovations have set the stage for this latest development. The overarching goal remains clear: to improve ship performance and safety for vessels worldwide through innovative solutions like Co-Captain.
Maritime safety, while always a complicated issue, is more relevant than ever today. Thanks to Orca AI’s and other organizations’ initiatives, fatalities and accidents at sea will soon be greatly reduced. The integration of advanced technologies into everyday maritime operations marks a pivotal shift towards safer navigation practices in an increasingly complex maritime environment.