AI tech to modernise weighing shipping vessels
Researchers in Scotland have developed new artificial intelligence (AI) technology aiming to modernise the way shipping vessels are weighed and checked for stability.
Naval architecture firm Tymor Marine and Edinburgh University have created the tool with support and funding from CENSIS, Scotland’s innovation centre for sensing, imaging and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The machine vision tool, powered by deep learning, will automate and more accurately undertake the reading of draught marks on ships.
The consortium said that draught marks – numbers marked in increments on the side of vessels to indicate how much of the ship is submerged – are currently measured and recorded by eye from the quay or a boat, similar to the way they have been for more than two millennia.
Measurements are often open to interpretation – waves, faded markings, lighting, and marine growth are just some of the factors that can lead to different readings being taken from the same vessel. Mariners also must check the marks on both sides of a ship, which can take hours, requires a boat, and involves health and safety risks.
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