We are delighted to announce that we have recently won an Innovate UK grant through their “Bridge-AI” scheme. The scheme focuses on supporting the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies in the UK economy – particularly in the transport and construction sectors.
For NASH Maritime and our partner Brunel University London, the funding will allow us to enhance our AI image recognition platform to improve categorisation and analysis of recreational water users from CCTV images. The development of the platform will help improve the accuracy and efficiency of Navigation Risk Assessment (NRA), by providing robust data on recreational craft movements.
NRAs are fundamental to safeguarding shipping and navigation when seeking to develop or upgrade maritime structures or operations in the marine environment.
Integral to NRA is the analysis of vessel traffic data. Whilst robust, reliable location and movement data is available for commercial, and some large recreational vessels, no such data are available for recreational water users – small craft, dinghies, rowers, kayakers etc. Instead, information on the movements and volumes of recreational water users is gathered through stakeholder engagement and direct observation. The former is very subjective, the latter resource intensive, time-limited and expensive.
Now with the support of this Innovate UK grant, we will be able to use recent advances in the capability of AI image recognition to automate the process of recreational vessel data collection and identification.
Dr Tim Wilkes, Innovation Lead at NASH Maritime said
“We are thrilled to be awarded the funding to enhance our AI platform. The project will extend the capability of NASH Maritime’s existing AI model so that it can more accurately identify and record volumes of various types of recreational craft and key parameters such as position and speed from port / harbour and maritime CCTV feeds.
“We expect the new model will make the NRA process more accurate and more efficient, and ultimately lead to safety gains for all water users.”
The project will run for six months with a prototype system available in Q1 2024, at which stage interested parties will be invited to host a pilot deployment.
