Awake.AI and Fintraffic have come into an agreement to provide schedule estimates for vessels in Finnish ports through the new Port Call Time Stamp and Estimation Service, which is a time data service for port operators and authorities.
In particular, the platform company for smart ports and autonomous shipping, Awake.AI will deploy Fintraffic company’s Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) marine traffic monitoring system for the new port call schedule service, which is expected to improve the competitiveness of Finnish maritime logistics, boost the efficiency of port operators’ routine activities, support the development of automation, help to anticipate exceptional circumstances, and reduce environmental emissions, according to a statement.
“The importance of time data for shipping has been taken into account in both national transport system plans and the government’s decision-in-principle on the digitalisation of logistics” stated Olli Soininen, Program Manager at Fintraffic’ s Vessel Traffic Services, who went on to add that “the port call schedule service will now enable us to implement this on a practical level.”
Furthermore, Project Manager and Vice President of Engineering at Awake.AI., Kimmo Kummala explained that “in practice, the new port call schedule service will provide the necessary applications programming interface (APIs) from which port operators can obtain time data for use in their own systems.”
Particularly, the new service will be based on data analysis through machine learning and the forecasts will be influenced by many factors such as the vessel’s speed and route, the weather and the ice situation. They will also be analysed using global automatic identification system (AIS) messages.
Furthermore, the service will have the ability to remember what has happened in the past and how various factors have affected a ship’s arrival time, by utilising machine learning. Artificial intelligence will therefore learn the normal deviations for a particular locality and adjust its calculations accordingly.
The new service was created thanks to the port call schedule working group which was launched in 2019, led by Traficom and consisted of about 30 operators in the marine logistics sector such as companies, public-sector entities, organisations and authorities that use and produce time data.
“There have been long attempts to tackle the challenges posed by data management in maritime logistics,” noted Chief Advisor, Ship Technology and Marine Environment at Traficom, Katariina Kalatie.
Before the working group was established, a preliminary study was carried out to collate existing research and reports and to identify any overarching needs, which revealed a largely general consensus in terms of needs and the target state: better predictability and information sharing is required to boost operational efficiency.
The technical implementation of the project will be carried out in Finland and the new port call schedule service will be introduced this autumn at Finnish ports, “but in practice, it can be used anywhere” said the Development Manager at Fintraffic´s Vessel Traffic Services, Juho Pitkänen, who added that the service will be available through the Fintraffic Digitraffic API or the Fintraffic Port Activity app.
