Tocaro Blue and Hefring Marine are partnering to bring together Tocaro Blue’s cutting-edge radar perception technology with Hefring Marine’s advanced Intelligent Marine Assistance System (IMAS).
The collaboration aims to create a powerful synergy designed to enhance safety, efficiency, and performance for both manned and unmanned vessels. This will pave the way for more intelligent vessel operations, combining artificial intelligence (AI), advanced sensors, and predictive analytics.
Hefring Marine’s IMAS System
The IMAS platform is an AI-powered system that provides real-time decision support to vessel operators and fleet managers. It leverages sensor data and edge computing to offer actionable guidance on speed, helping to mitigate whole-body vibration (WBV) and reduce wave slamming impacts.
This not only enhances crew safety and comfort but also leads to significant fuel savings and a reduced environmental footprint. IMAS is also a valuable asset in post-mission reporting and performance analysis, offering a data-driven approach to improving operational practices and training.
Tocaro Blue’s Radar Perception Technology
Tocaro Blue’s expertise lies in modernizing legacy marine sensors with smart software. The company’s ProteusCore™ solution uses machine learning and deep neural networks to process radar data, effectively filtering out noise and providing reliable object detection, classification, and tracking.
This technology overcomes the limitations of traditional radar systems, which often struggle with noise and manual tuning. Tocaro Blue’s software provides operators with enhanced situational awareness by turning raw radar returns into a clear, actionable picture of the surrounding environment.
Real-Time Impact Force Awareness and Speed Guidance
Hefring Marine’s IMAS system already provides intelligent speed recommendations based on real-time conditions to reduce impact forces. By integrating Tocaro Blue’s radar data, the system can now make these recommendations with an even greater level of situational awareness.
The combined system can analyze the environment in real time, detecting and classifying objects, and then provide speed and routing advice that anticipates potential issues before they arise. This creates a closed-loop system of perception, analysis, and action.
Radar-Based Collision Avoidance
Tocaro Blue’s technology is a powerful tool for collision avoidance by providing superior object detection and tracking. Coupled with Hefring Marine’s system, the collision avoidance capabilities are elevated.
The integrated solution can work in unison, providing a comprehensive smart solution that not only detects a potential collision threat but also provides a dynamic, intelligent speed and routing plan to safely avoid it.
Future Developments
The partnership targets applications for both traditional maritime operations and the autonomous vessel sector. On manned vessels, the integrated solution is intended to reduce operator workload and provide data to support decision-making. For autonomous vessels, the combined technology is designed to contribute to a more complete “perception-to-action” loop, which is a necessary element for safe and effective uncrewed operations.
Hefring Marine and Tocaro Blue are actively seeking early adopters to implement and refine this integrated solution. Maritime leaders and operators looking to enhance operational safety, reduce environmental impact, and improve overall vessel performance through data-driven insights are encouraged to explore this cutting-edge technology.
John Minor, CEO of Tocaro Blue, stated, “By offering our advanced marine Radar perception software with Hefring Marine’s actionable speed guidance system, we’re creating a powerful new capability for vessel operations. Our partnership allows us to offer maritime operators unprecedented situational awareness from their Radar combined with intelligent vessel speed and routing recommendations that can prevent incidents and optimize performance in real-time.”
Karl Birgir Björnsson, CEO at Hefring Marine, added, “Our IMAS system has already proved its value by helping vessel operators make smarter decisions. By combining our capabilities with Tocaro Blue’s advanced Radar perception technology, we’re not just improving the system, we’re creating an entirely new level of maritime intelligence that can anticipate challenges before they become problems.”
