A.R. Salindong
Trabus Technologies,
United States
Keywords: AI, marine transportation, logistics and planning
Summary:
RippleGo is the first AI-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) predictive application tool to improve voyage planning, estimated time of arrival (ETA) predictions, and optimize both vessel utilization and economic efficiencies. RippleGo is a one-stop shop cloud-based SaaS that provides AI-based predictive insights and map-based alerts to help boat operators to visualize, plan and execute their voyages on the inland waterways. Leveraging both historical and real-time info, RippleGo’s predictive modeling enables safe transits under bridges, through lock and dams, and past navigation hazards under varying river conditions, while continuously updating estimated time of arrivals to points of interest throughout the voyage. As conditions change along the way, RippleGo automatically alerts the end user and recalculates ETA to destination, so the mariner has maximum situational awareness. RippleGo automatically alerts mariners in changes in river traffic conditions, lock status, bridge air gap, river levels, and marine safety information. RippleGo will forecast bridge air gap and under keel clearances out to 7 days with 92% accuracy. RippleGo provides a smart alert and marine notification system to queue along the route. RippleGo also generates automatic trip reports and summaries. Voyage planning by mariners is a challenging task, often taking hours to collect data from disparate sources and planning for 10-14 day long trips. Currently voyage planning is done during the pre-voyage stages, with mariners making ad-hoc changes as they encounter changes in conditions, resulting in voyage planning failures. Such failures have resulted in late deliveries, collisions/allisions, congested navigable channels, and running aground. While there are numerous maritime data sources, they have not been optimized to enable real-time decisions. This has resulted in wasted time and lost revenue,. There is a lack of effective voyage planning tools for the inland waterways. Using AI, RippleGo provides mariners with predictive river level conditions, bridge air gap clearances and frequently updated ETAs. This allows the mariner to focus on driving the vessel instead of continuously assessing and reacting to changing navigation conditions. No similar capabilities exist for the inland waterway industry. During beta testing with industry, feedback indicated hours of voyage planning being now reduced to seconds. Economic benefits include reliable on-time delivery of goods, improved safety, customer revenue generation from optimized barge loading, savings in fuel, minimized stagnant time on waterways and improved congestion management at ports.