SafeNav aims to create groundbreaking digital solution to ensure safer navigation at sea

The SafeNav (Safer Navigation) maritime safety project, co-funded by the European Commission and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), was officially launched on Thursday 1 September, according to the company's release.
 
“The ambition and objective of the project is to develop and test a highly innovative collision-prevention solution that will significantly reduce the probability of collisions and groundings, thereby enhancing safer navigation for existing vessels and the new generation of ships designed for remote operations and autonomy in the future,” said SafeNav inventor Capt. Jorgen Grindevoll.
 
The system will consist of a module for automated collision prevention and avoidance, complemented by a decision-support module providing an effective visual representation for navigators of multi-source data harvested from state-of-the-art sensors and other relevant sources.
 
At the heart of the SafeNav solution is consortium partner Ladar Ltd’s cutting-edge technology LadarTM Sensor Suite technology, which uses an innovative combination of sensors and cameras to detect, classify and track objects/targets, as well as partially submerged objects, in the vessel’s path. Studies will also be carried out on how to avoid collisions with marine mammals.
 
Consortium member SAYFR will address the root causes of accidents, human behavior on the bridge (navigators) and develop a navigation risk model.
 
In addition to Ladar Ltd (UK), SAYFR (Norway) and Offshore Monitoring Ltd (Cyprus), the SafeNav consortium comprises a geographically diverse and technically robust group of key partners, including maritime companies Naval Group subsidiary Sirehna (France) and Danaos Shipping Co (Greece) and innovation-oriented SMEs include Global Maritime Services (UK) as marine advisors and Greenov-ITES (France) taking care of the environmental scope. R&D institutes and universities that will participate in the technical development of algorithms for SafeNav include Interuniversitair Micro-Electronica Centrum (IMEC) in Belgium, University of Rijeka (UNIRI) in Croatia and the University of Genova (UNIGE) in Italy.
 
SafeNav has also received co-funding from the European Commission Foundation Programme, and UK Research and Innovation, under Project No 10038866.
 
Founded in 2007, O.M. Offshore Monitoring Ltd is committed to improving the efficiency, safety, security and navigation of commercial shipping and related offshore activities by transferring non-maritime emerging technologies into the maritime and offshore marketplace.