Page 40: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2024)

TECH FEATURE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS

SITUATIONAL

AWARENESS

SYSTEM BATTLES

COGNITIVE

FATIGUE IN

WATCHKEEPERS

All images courtesy Groke Technologies

Today’s evolving maritime security risks pose all-too-familiar threats to international shipping, and as just one of the many causes of fatigue, they add to the cognitive burden already faced by watchkeepers. But Groke Technologies can boost safety onboard, says co-founder and CEO Juha Rokka.

ife at sea is already physically and mentally demanding. nology which combines information from a 225-degree visual

Crewing levels are tight, work hours are long and ir- camera with a specially-developed 180-degree infrared cam- regular, watchkeepers are required to perform adminis- era, as well as radar and AIS. An inbuilt inertial measurement

L trative tasks while on the bridge, port turnaround times unit collects data on pitch, roll, and yaw, and a high-precision are short, and there’s more technology onboard to master. GNSS provides positioning data. The resulting informative

Watchkeepers can ? nd it dif? cult to correlate the things display allows watchkeepers to detect any navigational haz- they are physically seeing with the instruments providing data ards and objects in real time. on the bridge. They need to be constantly crosschecking data A unique blending function combines images from day and from different systems to understand the objects they see on night cameras. The result is a clear view of the vessel surround- the screen and how they correlate with where they are in the ings even during night-time operations or other low-visibility real world? It can take around 20 seconds for bridge systems situations such as fog, heavy rain or highly re? ective situations. to update, and this naturally adds to the complexity of the Even under these conditions, for example, the colour of naviga- thought processes required of a watchkeeper. tion lights and surrounding objects can still be clearly shown.

The challenges increase when visibility is low or when All the objects detected by the computer vision system, in- there are large numbers of small vessels around. It is hard to cluding non-AIS vessels and sea marks, can be projected on predict what these vessels are going to do, and this racks up to electronic charts. Additionally, real-time risk analysis func- cognitive stress levels. tionality provides an intuitive risk compass, closest point of approach alarms and relative velocity tracking.

Greater Awareness

By bringing all this together, we aim to provide the best and

Groke Technologies was established to give watchkeepers most reliable depiction of reality possible. The information is unrivalled awareness of their vessel’s surroundings with the available via an easy-to-read visual display on a tablet, so it aim of improving safety and wellbeing onboard. can be viewed from anywhere on the ship not just the bridge.

Groke Pro is based on unique AI based sensor fusion tech- Six Japanese companies have now invested in Groke Tech- 40 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • April 2024

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