For centuries, our seas have proved to be the most economical means for international trade. This trend has persisted till today, where around 90 per cent of traded commodities are currently carried over the waters.
But perennial maritime security threats such as terrorism and piracy are still prevalent, with the maritime community facing a recent rise in the concentration of piracy activity around major maritime passages along global trading routes.
As maritime traffic grows, such risks tend to rise in tandem. Thus having a fully integrated and comprehensive suite of coastal and vessel surveillance systems, is even more crucial to keep seafarers and ports safe.
Smarter mobility detection and behaviour analytics
ST Engineering’s Radar Extractor and Tracker is able to optimise your existing radar capabilities and detect and track up to 1,000 simultaneous targets, even under challenging environments. Using our advanced signal processing, we are able to augment your navigational radar with surveillance capabilities and detect smaller targets more easily without the need for costly radar upgrades.
Combined with AI-powered intelligent behaviour analytics embedded in the solution, our system autonomously surveys surrounding vessels and points out anomalous behaviours. This reduces the cognitive load of seafarers as the system detects suspicious behaviours quickly and warns the crew of any potential hazards.
Enhanced detection of targets of all sizes
Traditional navigational radars are often unable to pick up smaller targets like speedboats and fast craft. Their Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) trackers are capable of detecting targets with a large radar cross-sectional area, like bridges, oil tankers, commercial vessels and yachts.
With our advanced Track Before Detect (TBD) algorithm, both small and large targets can be accurately detected. This allows the radar to detect targets of various sizes by maximising the signal-to-noise ratio.
Tackling piracy
The Maritime Anti-Piracy System (MAPS) protects seafarers and merchant ships against heightened crimes such as piracy, hijacking and terrorism. Powered by the Track Behavioural Analysis module, the system is akin to a virtual buddy which provides an early warning to malicious intent by terrorists or pirates.
This helps reduce the cognitive load of the crew by automatically identifying any suspicious manoeuvres such as U–turns, and alerts the crew in case of a possible pirate hijack attempt.
The system was put to the test recently at Benin River in Nigeria to finetune our anti-piracy detection profiles with our partners. It was a success, with the system successfully detecting a suspicious U-turn profile of a small Type 2 wooden boat target.
Preventing collisions at sea
The MAPS is also equipped with a collision warning system for safe navigation, with the Track Behavioural Analysis module also able to constantly study the speed and trajectory of surrounding vessels and alert the crew to any possible intersection between them so that evasive manoeuvres can be taken to avoid a collision.
Coast guard ships can also leverage the module for enforcement purposes and to warn vessels of possible collisions.
Safer coastal waters
Besides on-vessel applications, our radar systems can also be installed on fixed coastal radars to detect illegal activities and forced entries by automatically surveying real-time vessel traffic within the port.
There is the Coastal Surveillance System (CSS) that helps maritime authorities safeguard their coastal waters with precise real-time detection, tracking and identification of targets of interest.
The other is the Maritime Situation Awareness System (MSAS), which combines mobile and coastal radar systems to enable authorities to better protect key installations with an enhanced situational awareness of the surroundings. Data that is exchanged between coastal radars and mobile vessels is fused together in command and control centres to provide a full 360-degree surveillance picture.
Why ST Engineering Radar Extractor and Tracker?
Our system is designed to be system-agnostic and can be easily interfaced with most of your existing digital or analogue navigational and coastal equipment, including surveillance cameras.
It is also a cost-effective solution, as it intelligently augments navigational radar with the capabilities of an advanced radar at a fraction of the cost by leveraging commercial off-the-shelf hardware. With its low computational resource requirements, it offers a balance between performance, cost and form factor.
Through our proprietary detection algorithm, we are able to improve your maritime situational awareness and enhance the safety and security of coastal, maritime and other sensitive sites.
Click here to find out more about our maritime safety and security solutions.