The concept of a dark vessel refers to ships that intentionally turn off their (Automatic Identification System o AIS) or manipulate their data to avoid detection and monitoring. These practices are illegal, as AIS is a crucial communication system for maritime safety, collision prevention, and monitoring activities in the ocean.
The dark vessels are often involved in illicit activities, such as:
- Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing:This type of fishing poses a significant threat to marine resources and coastal ecosystems.
- Drug, weapon, or human trafficking:These vessels evade maritime controls to transport goods or people illegally.
- Evasion of trade sanctions:Turning off AIS allows certain vessels to bypass sanctions, such as those imposed on countries restricted in oil or gas trade.
In this context, SEDA addresses these challenges using Artificial Intelligence techniques alongside satellite imagery to detect these vessels. This approach automates both the detection and the possible route taken by vessels without AIS.
Input and model characteristics
The model for dark vessel detection requires AIS data prior to the absence of signals, as well as Medium Resolution (MR) Electro-optical images.
SEDA has implemented a route prediction model based on Transformer models This model generates a maritime route for the vessel that has disabled AIS data, based on pre-disablement data (position, speed, etc.)
Output of the Artificial Intelligence model
SEDA automatically processes the output from the Transformer network and the CNN, displaying detection results in bounding boxes (BB), alongside the vessel's route and its predicted path from the point AIS was disabled, all superimposed on a GIS viewer.
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