A team of AI researchers, video-game developers, 3D designers and hardware engineers has created the Lookout camera system, which is intended to detect marine hazards “beyond human capability.”

The Lookout camera system uses computer vision algorithms to find and track marine hazards, including other vessels, buoys, debris, whales and people in the water. The system combines data from charts, AIS, radar target and online sources into a 3D augmented reality view.

According to the Lookout team, this system reduces the captain’s cognitive load and enhances situational awareness, making decision-making more efficient while underway.

The Lookout system also uses data from other NMEA-compatible sensors, and it integrates with modern multifunction displays from Garmin, Furuno, Raymarine and Simrad, as well as with smartphones.

“We’re living in an era where AI, augmented reality, and spatial computing are transforming navigation and safety,” David Rose, Lookout’s CEO, stated in a press release. “Boating should benefit from the same innovation we see in automotive and aerospace. Lookout integrates AI tech with intuitive, beautiful and beneficial software design, providing clarity especially in challenging conditions like low light, fog and crowded harbors.”

The Lookout system has three components: a camera with infrared night-vision, high-resolution daylight zoom and 360-degree views for docking; a “brain” powered by Nvidia technology for processing multiple data streams and creating the augmented reality view; and an optional cloud service for boats with Starlink or other internet connections, to enable community-driven data sharing.

Rich Miner, inventor of Android, a Google Ventures partner and an avid boater, said he invested in Lookout “not only because of its potential in recreational boats, but also because it’s a must-have technology for ferries worried about hitting logs, law enforcement and military vessels, inland tugs and workboats.”

Tod Tally, general manager of the Viking Yachts subsidiary Atlantic Marine Electronics, is also helping to promote the system. “Lookout’s sensing and data-sharing capability is what boats need today,” he stated in the company’s press release. “Knowing when a nearby boat detects a floating log or a whale is a game changer. Like Waze, it provides a network of lookout eyes on the water, ensuring everyone’s safety.”

What is the pricing for the Lookout system? The camera retails for $3,995. Customers can choose between the Lookout Brain for $4,995 and the Brain Pro for $9,995, with the Pro version offering higher frame rates and resolution for detecting smaller, more distant targets.

Take the next step: go to getalookout.com

The post Smarter Boating Ahead: AI Tech Enhances Onboard Cameras appeared first on Yachting.

It’s not every day that you see a ship hovering above the sea. Of course, it’s also not every day that you find yourself sailing from Ketchikan, Alaska, to Seattle under warm and sunny solstice skies—but there I was. And there was the gravity-defying ship.

Just as I began to question my watch-standing skills, Erden, my friend and shipmate, explained that fata morgana is an atmospherically triggered optical illusion that can make distant objects appear to hover. We checked the AIS, and our mirage was an actual ship plying actual brine.

Given that we had hundreds of miles to go, there was time aplenty to ponder whether AIS could also experience situational-awareness hiccups. The answer is yes, and the solution is already being developed. The VHF Data Exchange System (VDES), once operational, should make boating a better, safer and even more information-rich experience than it is today.

To understand why, we need to start with AIS. On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez found the bricks in Alaska’s Prince Williams Sound, triggering one of history’s worst environmental disasters. A year later, as part of the Oil Pollution Act, lawmakers tasked the U.S Coast Guard with creating a vessel-tracking system (VTS) for tankers operating in the U.S Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service in Alaska. The resulting system was based on VHF radio communications, as well as shore-based monitoring and polling systems.

This system evolved into what became global AIS. By 2000, the International Maritime Organization began mandating that most sea-bound ships carry Class A AIS transmitters for collision-avoidance purposes and as a VTS tool. These transmitters broadcast information—including the vessel’s name, position, course, speed, navigational status and unique MMSI number—on dedicated VHF channels 87B and 88B every two to 10 seconds, depending on vessel speed, while also listening for incoming AIS transmissions.

In 2006, the AIS standards committee released specifications for a Class B-CS AIS system, which is a “polite” system that’s interoperable with Class A AIS on a non-interference basis, for voluntary users. The Class B-CS employs the same two VHF channels, but it broadcasts every 30 seconds.

In 2013, Class B-SO transmitters arrived. These operate on the same self-organizing bandwidth scheme as Class A systems; however, they transmit every five to 30 seconds.

Overall, while there are many differences between Class A and Class B AIS transmitters, all AIS transmissions operate on just the two VHF channels: 87B and 88B. Given the amount of critical data that flows across these channels on crowded waters, bandwidth emerges as AIS’ limiting factor.

Enter VDES. The VHF Data Exchange System bundles existing technologies into one communications hub.

VDES is composed of four key components: AIS, VDE Satellite, VDE Terrestrial and ASM channels. Much like modern smartphones that seamlessly tackle roaming and multiple frequencies, an onboard VDES box (once the system is operational, circa 2025 to 2035) should be able to listen to 12 different frequencies. These include two frequencies for satellite-based long-range AIS, two frequencies for sending and receiving AIS-based messages, six channels for receiving terrestrial or satellite-based data, and six channels for transmitting satellite data.

“The goal with VDES is to move non-ship-to-ship traffic off AIS so that AIS is primarily for collision avoidance, and for other marine-safety information to migrate to the other VDES channels,” says Jorge Arroyo, a U.S Coast Guard program-and-management analyst. While all AIS devices will continue to work, unchanged, the overall system will be more efficient, robust and broader. “What I’m talking about today will hopefully be seamless in the future,” he adds.

While the ability to send updated navigational chart corrections or certain marine safety notifications via VDES offers a glimpse at the future, Arroyo envisions bigger dividends. “Real-time weather could be the killer app,” he says, adding that he hopes ships will share real-time weather information with other VDES users on the high seas via mesh networks that also share the information with satellites.

Dave Dunn, Garmin’s senior director of marine sales, says, “VDES is in the stratosphere, but it will trickle down.” And there’s less freeboard to this drop than one might think. In 2019, Vesper Marine, a New Zealand-based AIS company, unveiled its Cortex communications hub, which bundles AIS, cellular, digital-selective calling (DSC), VHF and Wi-Fi communications into a single hub. In early 2022, Garmin acquired Vesper Marine.

“As it stands, with no changes, we can receive and decode eight channels in parallel; we are currently using five, so there are three in reserve,” says Carl Omundsen, Garmin’s engineering manager of marine communications. “In 10 years, no one will know or care about AIS. It will just be cool functionality, along with VHF, DSC and VDES. It will just work.”

And VDES is a two-way communications system that should allow vessels, satellites and terrestrial-based shore stations to send and receive far more data than current AIS receivers and transmitters can deliver. “This will open up the killer apps,” Omundsen says. “It’s not just weather, search-and-rescue and for ships coming into ports; it’s also about data that’s on the ship.”

If this sounds like the kind of big data that’s currently transmitted via a sat-comms system, or if you’re pondering future autonomous vessels, you’re on the right tack.

Given that VDES will be employed on domestic and international waters, numerous international agencies are regulating the system. All parties seem to want the technology to thrive.

“The market will always drive the technology faster than we can on the regulatory side,” Arroyo says, adding that regulations provide the framework, while individual companies create the innovations.

All expectations are that, for instance, ships and commercial operators will have access to updated navigation and ice charts, while yachts plying the Northwest Passage or some other high-latitude waters will also get up-to-date cartography and ice alerts. Moreover, while traditional AIS is limited to line-of-sight communications (ballpark 5 to 20 nautical miles), VDES’s satellite antennas will extend this range a hundredfold. Factor in the coming ability to cloud-load systems data, and Arroyo’s vision for sharing real-time weather information, and it’s obvious that VDES will do much more than prevent collisions.

For yachtsmen thinking about upgrades: Garmin’s Cortex will eventually be able to support VDES, with an expected software update; and Saab and Kongsberg have pre-VDES upgradable systems available for commercial marine use.

Greener Pastures

Supporting two-way communications is among the strongest attributes of VDES and will be especially important as autonomous navigation systems and autonomous vessels come online. VDES information is expected to help human operators optimize marine traffic patterns, which should help lower ships’ emissions and fuel-consumption rates.

The post All-In-One Comms: the VHF Data Exchange System appeared first on Yachting.

ACR Electronics has introduced what it says is the world’s first mobile-connected AIS EPIRB with Return Link Service, designed for faster rescue in emergencies on the water.

The ACR GlobalFix V5 EPIRB has received Cospas-Sarsat approval. It has a 10-year battery life and features that include GNSS positioning.

“The next-generation EPIRBs will undoubtedly save more lives in the years ahead,” Mikele D’Arcangelo, vice president of global marketing and product management for ACR Electronics, stated in a press release. “The new mobile app has raised the bar for what consumers want and expect from their lifesaving equipment, making it easier for them to understand and interact with their beacon.”

The company is also introducing a version without AIS, called the ACR GlobalFix V6 EPIRB.

AIS being incorporated into the beacons means yacht owners have an additional method of communicating their location to nearby vessels in an emergency. A distress signal will be received by all ships, boats and aircraft equipped with AIS in the vicinity.

The Return Link Service provides a confirmation back to the EPIRB, letting the boater know the international satellite system has received the distress message and location.

By holding a mobile phone over the beacon’s designated area, the latest beacon information is automatically transferred into the ACR mobile app on the phone to review.

Does this new technology meet the regulations that the International Maritime Organization Maritime Safety Committee EPIRB put into force in July 2022? ACR Electronics says the new model exceeds those regulations. It’s still awaiting authorization from the Federal Communications Commission in the United States.

Where to learn more: go to acrartex.com

The post ACR Introduces GlobalFix V5 EPIRB appeared first on Yachting.

Predicting the future of marine electronics isn’t easy, but these four men are paid to do exactly that. Here’s a look at trends that are likely to be influential during the next five years, from the minds of Dave Dunn, Garmin’s director of sales and marketing for marine; Knut Frostad, CEO of Navico; Eric Kunz, Furuno’s senior product manager; and Jim McGowan, Raymarine’s Americas marketing manager. (Their words have been slightly edited for space and clarity.)

Q: Which consumer electronics trends are likely to affect marine electronics?

A: Dunn: Connectivity and integration. There’s more desire for third-party companies integrating with multifunction displays, and there’s more expectation from customers. I think there will be more boats without buttons and switches, as well as more digital-switching systems.

A: Frostad: Consumer electronics are starting to have a good learning experience. 2020 has been an amazing year for attracting new boaters, but it requires the user experience to be more educational. Voice assistance is becoming big on land. I think there will be more integration with phones and watches. On land, everything has a low-power mode to lower consumption—I think that’s where we’re going with marine.

A: Kunz: I think we’re going to see more control of the vessel and its onboard systems through multifunction displays. We’re going to see new sensors that produce more-accurate information at lower costs. For example, GPS III. I also think there will be more automation between handheld devices and the boat.

A: McGowan: The No. 1 thing I see is connectivity. Everything is connected in a house—temperature, music and security—and the demand is there to do that on boats. Getting to a mass-market solution is going to be key. All levels of vessel monitoring and niceties—turning on lights, engines, and AC and climate control—will be done through mobile devices.

Q: How important will artificial intelligence be?

A: Dunn: We’re seeing more and more augmented reality, and I think that will become more prominent. With AI, it’s hard to say; there are so many variables at sea. I don’t think it will be a prominent feature in the next five years. With 5G networks, you’ll be able to get better weather services from your phone, so maybe there will be better predictive routes with autoguidance, for example, if you go to the same places every weekend.

A: Frostad: Boats are suited to AI because there are a lot of variables that are hard to follow manually. For example, intelligent radar, where the system interprets the image: AI could separate the echoes and create an optimal route, in combination with the autopilot. Finding fish is another possibility. We’re going to use AI to improve the boating experience. For example, we could use machine learning to see how customers use their boats, so when they switch on the battery, the system turns on the boat the way they normally use it.

A: Kunz: I don’t see AI playing a big role in the next five years. But augmented reality, which combines different technologies to improve and automate situational awareness—say, by combining the functions of video, GPS and other sensors in ways that we weren’t able to do before—we’ll do that in the next five years.

A: McGowan: I think it will explode. We’re seeing the beginning with machine vision and advanced processing. It’s not quite AI, but the next logical step is for cameras to identify objects. It’s fair to call machine vision a learning system—it’s got a built-up knowledge base. We’re seeing it in automotive with pedestrian and animal detection and collision avoidance. The marine environment is a good place to develop that kind of technology; there’s a lot of water and not much else.

Q: Will the next breakthroughs be software-driven? Or will hardware and software development remain hand in hand?

A: Dunn: We’ll see faster multifunction-display processors, but the glass will look pretty much the same. Maybe there will be larger screens, but I think the major changes will be software-driven. Everything that we’re developing now for the next five years can run on today’s multifunction displays.

A: Frostad: They’re linked. The more you want to do, the more processor speed you need. We need to innovate quicker, but we can’t launch hardware like iPhones—we don’t have the scale. We’re still in the phase of bigger screens and super-wide format, which has great benefits. Higher-resolution screens mean more details, and details matter. The hardware will improve the user experience, but the software makes the experience better.

A: Kunz: I think it will be hand in hand. Today’s multifunction displays have the power that personal computers had just a few years ago. They’ve got gigabytes of memory, they’re robust, and they’re a dedicated and isolated platform, so they’re hard to hack. I think we’ll see things such as integrating different sensors, say, for personal bathymetric generation.

A: McGowan: I think they’ll remain hand in hand. Memory and processing have gotten cheap, but the software keeps getting more complicated. Companies will need to add processing power to keep it fast. No one likes waiting for a screen to populate—it’s got to be snappy. And when you add AI and internet connectivity, you’ll need horsepower.

Q: Will autonomous vessel operations become important? If so, will electronics or engine manufacturers supply the technology?

A: Dunn: It will absolutely be a big part of the marine-electronics market, likely sooner than later. For example, you’ll see more autodocking capabilities.

A: Frostad: I think marine-electronics manufacturers will provide the user interface through the multifunction display. With autonomous boats, the first step is to assist and not take over. On land, Tesla parks the car on a flat surface. Docking a boat, there are so many types of docks; there can be waves, tide, current and wind. So, we want to complement the user. And it’s not going to be cheap. There are 3,000 boat models, so we’ll need algorithms for each boat.

A: Kunz: Marine-electronics manufacturers will make the sensors, while other companies will make things like thermal and visual cameras and integrate them. There’s a push for engine manufacturers to produce systems that allow marine-electronics companies to control the vessel, but I think it will be a combination of companies.

A: McGowan: Five years from now, I expect a high level of integration between engine manufacturers and anyone they allow to control their engines. This won’t be a DIY kit—engine manufacturers are meticulous about testing third-party electronics on their engines. Engine manufacturers probably don’t have all the expertise; they’re looking for technology partners. Whose name is on it will likely be a business negotiation. Engine manufacturers make great products, but sensing and controls will likely come from the electronics and adjacent markets.

Q: How important will 5G cellular and low- and medium-Earth-orbit satellite networks be?

A: Dunn: It’s hard to say. I don’t think there will be any negative impacts. There’s been a lot written on 5G blocking GPS, but we don’t think it will have any adverse impact. I think there will be more real-time weather streaming and live fuel prices without dedicated communication antennas. There are a lot of green-pasture ideas. I think 5G will give us a lot more options and tools.

A: Frostad: My expectation is that few 5G providers will turn their antennas to the sea, and I expect even shorter ranges with 5G than with 4G. Will medium- and low-Earth-orbit satellites be the answer? Maybe. I haven’t seen Starlink’s prices, but they’ll have the capacity to provide speed and bandwidth offshore. 5G will have an impact, but if a boater is only in range 90 percent of the time, we can’t provide an always-on service. Starlink is interesting because it’s always on.

A: Kunz: These technologies will revolutionize connected boats. Current satellite-communications systems are expensive and bulky. Starlink antennas are 18 inches. I think it will change the way boats interact. Bandwidth will suddenly be available to do things that we haven’t thought of yet. For example, open-ocean AIS and real-time weather that’s sent directly to the multifunction display.

A: McGowan: It’s going to be key to have cheap, fast connectivity everywhere. That’s the biggest shortcoming right now. In a bay, 4G is pretty good, but in coastal waters, you can’t depend on it. Also, if you want to stream, there are data caps and slowdowns, so 5G could be the answer. When low-Earth-orbit satellite networks come online, they’ll be a game-changer. Satcom on low-Earth-orbit networks will be low cost compared to current solutions.

Q: Anything else?

A: Dunn: We’ll see the gap between consumer electronics and marine electronics close faster than ever before, and that’s extremely exciting.

A: Frostad: Twenty years ago, the attitude was, “Don’t touch the nav system,” but now kids see a touchscreen and want to play. Instead of just making electronics more advanced, we want to make them more inclusive. Think of modern TVs: They’re easy to navigate, and we want that user experience on the boat.

A: Kunz: I could see the rise of disruptive technologies—for example, Starlink. I think there will be streamlined navigation systems and increased safety, and I think multifunction displays as glass bridges will continue to evolve. I think there will also be predictive failure analysis, monitored through the multifunction display, where, for example, engines are connected to the internet.

A: McGowan: Connectivity is key to a lot of these questions, but with machine vision and AI, we’re only scratching the surface.

The post How Technology Will Drive Marine Electronics for Yachts appeared first on Yachting.

Few technologies have played a greater role in preventing at-sea collisions during the past 18 years than AIS transceivers, which broadcast a vessel’s navigation data—including digital selective calling information and real-time GPS—over VHF radio frequencies. Receiving vessels within VHF range display this information onscreen as icons that can be overlaid atop electronic cartography or a radar display.

Ten years ago, mariners could choose between two kinds of AIS transceivers. Class A transceivers have a dedicated display and broadcast their position information every two to 10 seconds (vessel speed depending) at 12.5 watts using the Self-Organized Time Division Multiple Access scheme. Class B units, which are aimed at recreational users, “politely” broadcast every 30 seconds at 2 watts using the Carrier-Sense Time Division Multiple Access scheme. While the latter is effective in wide-open waters aboard slower-moving vessels such as sailboats or long-range cruisers, Class B/CSTDMA transmissions regularly get trampled by Class A communications, meaning they can go unheard in crowded waters. Moreover, fast-moving Class B targets can outrun their displayed AIS icons, leading to confusion.

Today, Class A AIS is mandated equipment aboard passenger vessels and internationally bound commercial vessels over 300 gross tons, while Class B AIS is largely unregulated.

In 2015, the Federal Communications Commission approved the use of Class B/SOTDMA (“Class B-SO”) transceivers, which broadcast their position information at 5 watts every five, 15 or 30 seconds, depending on vessel speed. “As soon as the regulations for Class B-SO products [were] published, all [manufacturers] started working on them because they’re a great balance of the technical benefits of Class A but much closer to the price point of a Class B,” says Greig Keesing, Simrad’s product manager.

This balance makes Class B-SO a powerful option. “I think Class B-SO should probably be strongly preferred by customers over everything else,” says Eric Kunz, Furuno’s senior product manager. “The extra power and faster transmissions [are] a lot better.”

Others agree. “There’s more reliability,” says David Dunn, Garmin’s director of sales and marketing for marine, about Class B-SO systems. “I could see it becoming a requirement for recreational boaters.”

While regulations have played a big role in the evolution of AIS, so too have hardware and software developments. Ten years ago, “Class B AIS was yet another [downstream] black box, but now it’s a lot smaller,” says Jim McGowan, Raymarine’s Americas marketing manager, adding that first-generation AIS used NMEA 0183 connectivity, whereas today’s AIS uses higher-speed and easier-to-install NMEA 2000 connectors. Additionally, some Class B AIS transceivers now have dedicated monitors.

While faster connectivity and dedicated screens are important developments, “the biggest changes have been on the presentation side,” McGowan adds. “Back then, AIS was a little triangle on an MFD with a vessel’s name, [closest point of approach] and speed. Now, the system is a lot smarter.”

For example, some AIS transceivers scale AIS targets to physically represent their real-world vessels, while some systems display danger zones.

Carl Omundsen, Vesper Marine’s co-founder and chief technical officer, agrees. “Much of the signal processing required to encode and decode the AIS messages can now be defined in software that can replace a large portion of the more traditional hardware-intensive analog implementation,” he says.

Like McGowan, Omundsen points to the recent trend of bundling miniaturized AIS technology into DSC-capable VHF radios—or into Vesper’s revolutionary Cortex safety-and-communications platform—as other game-changers.

“I think [AIS] integration into VHF systems is a natural one. AIS, VHF and DSC tightly integrated into one user experience makes for a powerful communications system,” says Omundsen, adding that he also expects to see greater integration between AIS and MFDs in the future.

Moving forward, all experts agree that AIS is likely to play an increasingly large onboard role, but Kunz cautions that AIS is designed to supplement—not replace—radar.

“AIS only tells you who’s out there with an AIS system, but nothing [about] boats that don’t [carry an AIS transceiver],” he says. Because of this, Kunz strongly recommends using radar to fact-check AIS targets, a task that is especially important if the target is a fast boat fitted with a Class B/CSTDMA transceiver.

Modern MFDs combine the processing power and app-driven, multitouch user interfaces of fast wireless devices with the onscreen pop of modern TVs, and they come bundled in marinized packages that can withstand everything from high-latitude cold to equatorial heat. To accomplish this, MFD manufacturers leverage the far bigger consumer-electronics market for faster processors, more memory and bigger, more eye-pleasing displays.

Multitouch-enabled MFDs are the norm today, but the market was appreciably different in 2010. A decade ago, Simrad’s Keesing says, the company’s high-end MFDs employed rotary dials, hard buttons and alphanumeric keypads to tackle user-interface commands. “[It] came with an 8- or 12-inch color screen, [and] it was the first Simrad MFD with LED backlighting,” he says.

Today, users have the benefit of advances in LCD-screen technology such as in-plane switching, which delivers better off-angle viewing, and optical bonding, which mitigates fogging.

“Everything we make today is optically bonded,” says Garmin’s Dunn, adding that other crucial evolutions include embedding GPS antennas and basic sonars into MFDs, and adding HD video inputs, Ethernet ports and Wi-Fi connectivity. These evolutions matter because Ethernet allows networked MFDs to display sonar or radar feeds on multiple screens (or at multiple helms); HDMI video inputs facilitate higher-definition onscreen imagery; and Wi-Fi connectivity allows users to access an MFD’s navigational information (and sometimes even system controls) from networked wireless devices, use cellular-enabled devices as portals for delivering updates and cloud connectivity, and back up hard-won intellectual property.

“For fishermen, fear of losing their waypoints can be overwhelming,” Dunn says. “But if the system backs itself up, it’s peace of mind.”

Some 2010-generation MFDs offered a touchscreen user interface—however, pinch-to-zoom capabilities didn’t arrive until 2012-13. Today, customers have a choice of MFD interfaces ranging from touch-only to hybridized touchscreens and buttons to hard-button-only options.

While customers naturally gravitate toward cutting-edge features, Furuno’s Kunz points to the underlying operating-system architecture as a significant evolution. “Most manufacturers adopted an Android or Windows platform, so there’s a lot of scalability,” he says, adding that OS familiarity allows manufacturers to create new hardware without expecting customers to study manuals.

As with computers, it’s impossible to discuss MFDs without delving into processing power and speed. Today’s MFDs are “at least three to four times faster and more powerful,” Kunz says.

McGowan agrees, adding that, 10 years ago, Raymarine offered a single-core processor. “Now, we use a quad-core processor with a huge amount of memory,” he says, pointing to miniaturization and better heat-sinking technologies as other important MFD advances. “The architecture is built for speed, so it fills in immediately. There’s no waiting. … It runs circles around [a 2010 MFD] right out of the box.”

Improved horsepower and speed have also allowed manufacturers to get rid of some downstream black boxes in favor of embedded componentry, and to create tighter synergy between MFDs and third-party digital switching systems.

“Ten years ago, large-scale integration didn’t exist,” Kunz says. “It’s allowed us to slowly and steadily build a glass bridge and control the whole boat.”

This improved integration and connectivity is collectively encouraging a push to use the vessel’s MFD to control third-party systems. “Customers are using their MFD to watch Netflix and to connect to other systems—for example, their Seakeeper gyrostabilizers and Lumishore lighting,” McGowan says, adding that MFDs have become “a portal through which we can talk to things.”

Finally, there’s glass. “Nobody ever complains that their MFD is too big,” McGowan says, adding that customers have been amazed as high-end MFDs have steadily expanded to today’s 24-inch monsters.

Dunn agrees. “Most people want the biggest TV that they can fit and afford in their house,” he says, adding that screen-size preferences typically follow customers aboard.

Moving forward, customers can expect greater connectivity between their MFD and onboard systems, more app-based control of onboard systems from afar, and more-refined software and user-interface capabilities. “Today’s technology allows us to get creative and come up with innovative ways to make customers’ boating lives better,” Dunn says, “and we want their time on the water to be as joyful as possible.”

The post Advances in AIS appeared first on Yachting.

Bright, confusing lights punctuated the southwestern skyline as Serafin, a Liberty 458, exited the Panama Canal en route to Tahiti. Her crew’s attention was riveted to all four horizons. “There were hundreds of ships ahead — it looked like a city,” says Jeff Robbins, co-founder of Vesper Marine, who, along with his wife, Deirdre Schleigh, was on board in May 2007 with Serafin’s owner. Fortunately, Robbins had spent the previous two years cruising New Zealand aboard his Nordic 40, Vesper, and developing a stand-alone, black-box device that could receive Class A signals from the automatic information system transponders that commercial ships carry. Those AIS signals display each ship’s range, bearing and crossing information. Robbins’ box, likely the world’s first recreational-level AIS device, employed algorithms to help sift through the target-rich horizon. “Which ones pose a collision risk?” Robbins says. “The little device said to ignore all of these ships and just watch these two. It was amazing.” Today, following the years that he and Schleigh spent sailing and applying a passion for computers, their company, Vesper Marine, has helped to revolutionize AIS use aboard recreational yachts — and continues to develop and leverage AIS technologies. As a teenager, Robbins, now 60, was drawn to computers and emerging technology. “I didn’t go to college,” says Robbins, adding that the computer industry was taking its nascent steps in 1976 when he graduated from high school in Connecticut. “I was prepared for college, but I was offered a job writing software. I learn by doing, so this wasn’t a hard decision.”

In 1978, Robbins accepted a job working on operating systems and enterprise-level software at a computer firm in Colorado Springs, Colorado. That’s where he met Schleigh in 1985.

“We did a ton of hiking and skiing, but I always wanted to learn to sail,” he says. Robbins also dreamed of being part of a startup venture.

In 1993, he accomplished both when they moved to Seattle to help launch a tech company. Seven years unfurled in a flurry of late nights and long hours bookended by time on Puget Sound.

“We joined sailing clubs, chartered boats, leased boats and, in the late 1990s, we bought our Nordic 40,” Robbins says.

Slowly, a shared dream of plying distant horizons formed.

“You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time,” Robbins says. In 2000, they weighed anchor. Years before, some Seattle-based friends had left for a long-anticipated circumnavigation, which a cancer diagnosis cruelly truncated, shattering their retirement dream. When Robbins explained the someday scheme that he and Schleigh shared, their friend said: “If it’s your passion, go now. You’ll find a way.”

“We were gone within the year,” Robbins says. “We wanted to do it while we were young and healthy. We didn’t have a ton of money, but we had time, and we had us.”

Resignation letters were written, the house was sold, and arrangements were made for Janelle, their 20-year-old daughter, to finish college, joining her parents at interesting points en route.

“We had no financial plan, and we had no objective,” Robbins says. “We just said that we’d keep doing it until we weren’t enjoying it anymore, and we each had a veto card. Luckily, we both wanted to keep going.”

Their journey started with a shakedown cruise from Friday Harbor, Washington, to southeast Alaska, followed by goodbyes in Seattle before Vesper sailed for San Francisco. Robbins and Schleigh spent a year-plus gunkholing through Mexico to Costa Rica before sailing to Panama and making a passage to the Galapagos Islands.

While Vesper was properly equipped, container ships’ speeds — coupled with their size, ever-increasing numbers and lack of maneuverability — had long since debunked the big-ocean theory.

“Every journey has a surprise,” Robbins says. At one point, he says, suddenly “there was a ship right behind me. It wasn’t dangerous, but it was a how-did-that-happen moment.”

Sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s, Robbins had read an article about AIS technology and how it was becoming mandated aboard internationally bound commercial ships. Robbins realized that if he could receive these signals and integrate them with his yacht’s own GPS information, he could write software that would alert him — miles in advance — of oncoming ships and identify the dangerous targets. As Vesper sailed for New Zealand, Robbins began writing software, launching what he thought would be just another one of “Jeff’s mad science projects.” He’d done pet software projects before, aimed at delivering custom solutions to specific problems. He gave them away as gifts.

“It was my problem, my puzzle,” he says. “I built my own device and sailed around New Zealand using and further developing it. I showed other cruisers, and everyone was adamant that I market it.”

Robbins wasn’t sold until 2007, when he negotiated the Panama Canal’s hectic western entrance aboard Serafin and his homespun device automatically differentiated dangerous targets from background lights. During the next several months, he started an AIS company in New Zealand, where he and Schleigh would become citizens.

Robbins’ background, coupled with Schleigh’s production and logistics expertise, made them a formidable team, but they needed someone with experience designing radio-frequency hardware.

“We met Carl Omundsen over email, and he became our partner,” Robbins says. The three founded Vesper in Auckland in October 2007, and they shipped their first products in March 2008. “We weren’t the first company working on recreational use of AIS, but our focus then was on the unique needs of offshore sailors. We got it all going in six months. I’m pretty proud of this.”

Vesper’s first-generation AIS device, the WatchMate 650, was a low-power-draw, receive-only unit with a monochrome screen that identified dangerous targets and provided simple, graphical representations of upcoming crossing situations.

“Our mantra was that it has to be easy to use, especially for owners who only use their boats a few times a year,” Robbins says.

The WatchMate became popular with recreational boaters, and by 2009, Vesper began winning innovation awards.

“We initially thought, Wouldn’t it be cool if we could sell a few hundred of these?” Robbins says with a laugh.

His company now regularly ships thousands of AIS units to dealers and mariners on all seven continents while exploring larger-scale AIS applications (see “Unexpected Horizons”). Early Class B AIS transponders became available in the United States after the U.S. Coast Guard approved them in 2009, and by 2011, numerous companies were selling them. Vesper began manufacturing Class B AIS transponders in 2010, with features that could evaluate collision risk by filtering out unimportant targets, and that amounted to the marine industry’s first AIS anchor watch. Later, Vesper added NMEA 2000 translations and Wi-Fi compatibility, which allowed data to be displayed on third-party networked multifunction displays, PC-based navigation software and app-based wireless devices.

Earlier this year, Vesper released its latest AIS device, the WatchMate Vision2 smartAIS Touchscreen Transponder. It sports a high-resolution LCD screen, Wi-Fi connectivity, a USB port and an NMEA 2000 gateway. The unit also incorporates a refined version of Robbins’ target-filtration software that guided Serafin in 2007.

“It’s enormously rewarding to me to know one of our AIS units helped prevent a collision,” Robbins says. “I remember getting my first GPS. It was a revolutionary feeling, and I remember thinking that no one would ever want to go offshore without one. I had the same thought in 2007 exiting the Panama Canal. Once people have AIS, they won’t go to sea without it.”

Unexpected Horizons

Vesper Marine broadened the scope of its AIS expertise in 2011, when New Zealand’s Environment Southland Regional Council asked for a virtual aid to navigation that would mark storm-battered Tarapunga Rock in Doubtful Sound. Vesper’s resulting Guardian system impressed Stan Honey, technology director for the 34th America’s Cup, and in 2013 and 2017, Vesper helped define official America’s Cup racecourse boundaries. Vesper performed similar services for the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race, and has helped clients, including the New York Power Authority and the Port of Auckland, protect remote assets and identify shipping hazards.

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The passage from Seattle to San Diego was billed as a milk run, but that was before Michael Pack and his crew aboard Caelestis, Pack’s Wauquiez 47, suffered a crash jibe in gale-force winds that shattered their traveler, ending their ability to maneuver easily. By dawn, the wind had lain down to 35 knots, but the seas were still running 15 to 20 feet, and a failed generator made it impossible to run radar in the light fog some 110 miles off San Francisco. Fortunately, Caelestis’ Vesper Marine AIS WatchMate draws only 3 watts, so it was still powered on to warn Pack that Caelestis would pass within 0.1 mile of an outbound container ship roughly 15 to 20 miles away — a serious danger given the busted traveler, the wind and seas, and the container ship’s turning radius of 6 degrees per minute (which the AIS displayed). Rather than panic, Pack called the vessel directly and asked the captain to come to starboard a few degrees, an unusual request that was honored.

“We wouldn’t have even known he was there without AIS,” said Pack, who had fitted his AIS a week before leaving Seattle. “You can’t write the check on the way down.”

At its core, the Automatic Identification System (AIS) provides vessels both mighty and modest with the ability to “see,” automatically, nearby traffic while broadcasting their own signals to avoid collisions, but it’s also evolving into a vital navigational tool with the advent of the U.S. Coast Guard’s e-Navigation initiatives.

Hardwarewise, AIS units typically consist of a VHF transmitter, two VHF receivers, one Digital Selective Calling-enabled VHF receiver and an internal GPS receiver. System and vessel depending, AIS units broadcast every two to 30 seconds while constantly “listening” for incoming signals. Received transmissions are displayed as “targets,” both on minimal keyboard displays and on AIS-­enabled monitors, radars or electronic-chart display systems. By selecting an on-screen target, an AIS user instantly obtains critical navigation information including the target’s name and type, position, course, speed and other status reports (e.g., underway, anchored, restricted in ability to ­maneuver). Provided that each AIS-equipped vessel has obtained and programmed its nine-digit Maritime Mobile Service Identity number (a unique number registered to each vessel), nearby users can “knowingly” hail one another via VHF.

There are two classes of AIS mobile units: Class A and Class B. Class A AIS is mandated safety equipment aboard all SOLAS-class (Safety of Life at Sea) ships, and in the United States almost all self-propelled commercial vessels 65 feet and larger are also required to carry it. Class B AIS was designed for recreational vessels, and while it’s not as powerful as Class A, it provides nonregulated vessels with an important safety layer. Additionally, “listen-only” AIS scanners are available.

All transmitting AIS units use unique channel-­access methods that allow myriad users to share finite channel access efficiently, but that favor Class A over Class B signals. Class A transmits at 12 watts, while Class B transmits at 2 watts; this gives Class A units a greater operating range but otherwise doesn’t make a difference. Furthermore, Class A units are ensured a transmission slot every two to 10 seconds, depending on the vessel’s speed (faster speeds require faster refresh rates), while Class B units transmit every 30 seconds. This last point is especially germane for faster vessels, because separations between position reports can cause a yacht to outpace its displayed AIS target, spiking anxiety for other vessels, especially in crossing situations. Owners of quick rides should consider that Class A AIS provides the shortest position intervals (this becomes more important as the vessel’s speed exceeds 20 knots); however, Class A units require that operators manually enter information upon arrival and departure from each port of call.

Broadcast AIS signals can be “heard” not only by nearby vessels and aircraft but also by shore-based facilities, such as the Coast Guard’s Nationwide AIS (NAIS) base stations, allowing the Coast Guard to monitor maritime traffic and use AIS as a vessel traffic tool. Since AIS uses line-of-sight VHF communications, range is typically limited to 10 to 20 miles, with masthead antennas delivering better performance than obstructed antennas; also, shore-based repeater stations can substantially extend this range. While an AIS unit’s range is limited, it offers better propagation than radar, allowing AIS signals to “peer around” low-slung islands and making this technology ideally suited for soundings festooned with small landmasses.

“We see an annual increase of 10 to 15 percent in the number of Class B users in Sweden, but it’s not growing as quickly in other places,” said Anders Bergström, the owner of True Heading, who reported that 10 percent of all sailboats over 25 feet are AIS-equipped in Sweden, while only 4 to 5 percent of the nation’s powerboat fleet carries this equipment. “The original, anti-collision [application] is the most important, especially in the fog and darkness, but other aspects [are also beneficial] — it’s fun to see the traffic, much like plane-spotting apps.”

Some manufacturers embed Wi-Fi into their AIS units, allowing them to share data wirelessly. “Independent of other navigation equipment, it’s handy to have AIS data on your smartphone or tablet,” said Jeff Robbins, the co-founder of Vesper Marine, who explained that Vesper’s Wi-Fi-enabled AIS transponders include a high-speed GPS unit and an NMEA 2000 gateway, allowing these units to broadcast instrumentation data. “Some people use [their tablet/smartphone] as their primary navigation tool, while others just want to use [it] as a repeater.”

Irrespective of your preferred equipment, the decision to add either Class A or Class B AIS comes down to your yacht, your cruising grounds (e.g., prominence of fog, islands and heavy metal) and — with the Coast Guard’s evolving e-Navigation initiatives — your information appetite. “AIS is currently the only tool to transfer digital data onto your electronic-­nautical chart,” said Jorge Arroyo, a Coast Guard program analyst who has been instrumental in writing AIS regulations and standards, referring to the application specific messages (ASMs) that the Coast Guard can broadcast via AIS. “The ASM is the envelope. Within the envelope [the Coast Guard] is free to transmit all the other navigation-specific information that we wish. … It’s our way of providing digital navigational data directly to the vessel.”

Given that AIS increases situational awareness for all mariners, all boaters would be well advised to include this equipment on their helm or nav station, and to become familiar with emerging AIS search-and-rescue technologies, as well as with the U.S. Coast Guard’s new e-Navigation initiatives.

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