Tocaro Blue has developed a suite of radar processing technologies designed to bridge the gap between traditional maritime sensing and modern autonomous perception.
The Evolution of Marine Radar
The maritime industry has historically lagged behind other sectors in autonomy, yet ProteusCore has addressed this by transforming off-the-shelf radar into an AI/ML-driven detection and classification solution. Since 2019, the technical team has captured and analyzed one of the largest marine radar training datasets to inform their machine learning models.
Traditional maritime radar presents a paradox: it’s essential for safety yet notoriously difficult to interpret. Tocaro Blue harnesses this massive proprietary radar dataset to train the ML models embedded in ProteusCore, transforming ordinary off-the-shelf radar into an AI/ML-driven radar detection and classification solution.
Automated Optimization and Classification
To eliminate the need for frequent manual tuning, the system features a patent-pending AutoFocus capability. ProteusCore offers a patent-pending Autofocus feature that optimizes object detection based on environmental conditions, sea state, and proximity to land. ProteusCore is natively compatible with the ApolloCore EO/IR PTZ camera processing software, enabling radar and electro-optical/infrared sensor data to be processed together for enhanced maritime situational awareness. ProteusCore fine tunes the precise settings of the radar so that the machine learning model can accurately find and classify objects in the radar field-of-view. Beyond simple detection, the software utilizes sophisticated data filtering to provide radar-based classification, distinguishing between vessels, markers, buoys, land, and wake. This unique capability offers more context and information than ever before from radar. Now your radar knows whether a detection is a vessel, a marker or buoy, and even land or wake.
Advanced Tracking and System Integration
The system is capable of advanced tracking for hundreds of objects simultaneously without manual intervention. For each tracked object, ProteusCore reports position, closest point of approach, velocity, and predicted trajectory. This data is critical for radar-based Advanced Driver assistance systems (ADAS), allowing smart autopilot systems to leverage the output to make throttle and steering adjustments to avoid targets. Furthermore, the technology enables machine vision camera + radar fusion, where the sensors act as collaborators rather than competitors. In this setup, radar provides distance detection in poor weather while cameras offer target class verification. ProteusCore target tracking can inform where to point the camera and provide 360-degree awareness.
Find out more about ProteusCore radar processing software on Tocaro Blue’s website.
