Vesper Marine launches smartAIS technology

“In addition to new functionality that no other ‘black box’ AIS transponder offers, Vesper Marine keeps expanding the capabilities and benefits to our customers by adding new safety and ease-of-use features. With the launch of smartAIS technology, boaters will be safer and sleep better knowing that our transponders are always on and always watching, silently identifying risk situations and triggering alarms.”

Vesper Marine’s WatchMate XB-8000 is claimed to be the world’s first Black Box AIS transponder with intelligent alarm capabilities for enhanced safety of vessel and crew.

The transponder now includes new smartAIS features of collision avoidance alarms in addition to Anchor Watch and MOB alarms.

SmartAIS is a unique benefit of Vesper Marine’s award-winning product range, WatchMate XB-8000 smartAIS transponder, and WatchMate Vision – to make boating safer and more enjoyable.

Unlike other manufacturers’ solutions that simply send and receive AIS data, Vesper Marine’s smartAIS goes much further. An active system with smart alarm logic, it proactively alerts boaters of potentially hazardous situations. Putting users in control, smartAIS combines navigation sensor data, and GPS and AIS information, with intelligent alarm management that prioritizes alerts for the most urgent response. While traditional AIS transponders require additional equipment to trigger alarms, Vesper Marine’s smartAIS units continuously calculate crossing situations and generate collision alarms for critical action, alerts the crew of anchor dragging, and activates alarms for immediate man overboard (MOB) retrieval.

The smartAIS Anchor Watch tracks vessel position in relation to the anchor and marks positions over time to determine if the anchor is dragging. The alarm sounds if the boat drags outside a circular zone configured around the set anchor position.

The Vesper Marine smartAIS system is always watching for MOB situations. If a crewmember, activates an AIS MOB device from any manufacturer when they fall overboard, smartAIS will immediately sound its associated alarm and continuously update the individual’s location, bearing and range for easy retrieval. It can also be configured with MOB labelling which associates MOB devices to customizable names so that when an alarm is triggered, the system displays the name of the crewmember for quick and easy recognition. MOB labelling is available on WatchMate Vision.

The smartAIS also proactively alerts boaters when there is a potential collision situation. Combining GPS data such as position, course and speed; along with AIS data and smart alert logic it continually determines safety implications and alerts users using both the associated alarm and mobile devices. It computes the closest point of approach and time until the closest point and has critical alarms to warn of vessels posing a collision risk with information about the approaching vessel.

By Jake Frith