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Orca AI: Speeding up the evolution of shipping’s digitalisation journey

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is what is powering the new solutions coming to market and what fuels the coming generation of navigation tools that help tackle the challenges the industry is facing – but the real challenge with AI is in “changing mindsets and behaviours”. That’s the view held by Yarden Gross, CEO and co-founder of Orca AI, an Israeli developer of marine-purposed smart situational awareness platform.

“Mindset change doesn’t happen overnight, but our data can help to speed up this evolution, which is a natural part of shipping’s digitalisation journey,” says Gross.

Orca AI’s platform has been developed to help the crews on board better understand navigation situations by using computer vision and AI technologies along with existing onboard sensors. An automated lookout mimics the human watchkeeping process 24/7, which Gross tells Maritime CEO not only enhances situational awareness for the crew but also reduces the repetitive workload and prevents sensory overload and fatigue. The platform also links ships with shoreside teams, providing office-based staff access to data like speed drops, sharp manoeuvres and close encounter events. 

The company recently published its analysis involving 110 ships, spanning tankers, containers, bulkers and roros, sporting its platform throughout 2022. The results show a 26.9% reduction in the number of close encounter events, a 21.6% decline in sharp manoeuvres, and an 18% reduction in extreme drops of speed. 

“These improvements in operational efficiency led to a 66,300 tonne reduction in CO2 emissions in total,” Gross notes.

Gross served in the Israeli Navy, which is where he first met Orca AI co-founder Dor Raviv, who by the end of his tenure was specialising in unmanned vessels. They kept in touch after Gross went on to work in the automotive industry, which was at the time just starting to embrace autonomous tech and when they talked about what was needed to bring autonomous capabilities to the shipping industry, Orca AI was born.

The duo quickly noticed that the technology on navy ships was far superior to that in commercial shipping. 

“With over 4,000 incidents occurring in maritime every year, we were inspired to explore how we could leverage the technology to make the industry not only safer, but also more efficient. We wanted to introduce AI that could aid navigation, avoid collisions, and empower and support crews on a daily basis to make better decisions whilst keeping up with the huge demand that comes with being part of the global supply chain,” Gross says.

Playfair Capital first invested in Orca AI in 2019, and the startup has subsequently raised $15.5m in 2021 in a round led by OCV Partners with participation from Mizmaa Ventures and Playfair Capital, with further funding updates expected later this year.

Gross says the company has the world’s largest visual database of the oceans, with more than 20m nautical miles of footage captured since 2019. The company is also part of the team that’s pioneering autonomous vessels following the world’s first successful trial in Japan last year.  

The trial was conducted by the Nippon Foundation in collaboration with the Designing the Future of Full Autonomous Ships (DFFAS) consortium, which includes 30 Japanese firms and Orca AI. Using the company’s AI and deep-learning technologies, the vessel completed 40 hours of navigation with complete autonomy being activated 98% of the time.

Gross sees a future whereby ships are intelligent and able to make decisions autonomously based on data, getting from A to B on their own, all while communicating with other vessels and onshore personnel. 

“While this will be a gradual process towards full autonomy, these intelligent ships will also be able to make on-the-spot and well-thought-out decisions based on the type of operation they are trying to achieve. For example, being efficient does not always necessarily mean being fast, so the AI will be able to analyse and summarise the best course of action a company should take based on the remit set for its customers,” he says.

Going forward, Orca AI plans to keep working on evolving its technology as more and more interest in its platform arises. The work on autonomous vessel trials is also ongoing and the company will be providing further updates on that in due course.

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