Company
The company
Seafar NV is an independent ship management company, offering services to operate unmanned and crew-reduced vessels for ship owners and shipping companies. Via our Control Center we manage and operate unmanned and crew-reduced vessels, with emphasis on effective and safe operations.
Seafar is a front-runner in the development and operational integration of state of the art technologies for semi-autonomous and unmanned shipping.
Our mission
To help ship owners to reach their full potential through innovative services.
Operations
Shore Control Center
Vessels are operated from the Seafar Shore Control Center by licensed captains with a long track record in inland and maritime navigation. The captains in the Shore Control Center are supported by the latest technologies based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. The combination of vessel autonomy (navigation) and remote pilotage (support in maneuvers) is the key for the implementation of efficient smart shipping.
Research
Artificial Intelligence
Autonomous navigation
Using Seafar’s algorithms for AI, a vessel uses a navigations model and a vessel model to predict future behavior and avoid unsafe situations through the most optimal trajectory. Using multiple types of exteroceptive sensors, Seafar incorporates its artificial intelligence algorithms for sensor fusion to build an accurate model of the world. The world is stored in a data base that can be accessed and improved by any autonomous vessel that enters that region.
Machine learning
Obstacle indentification & classification
Environmental sensors such as LiDAR, radar, and cameras produce data used in obstacle identification and classification. Teaching a vessel to learn from objects and its environment is just the beginning of machine learning. Seafar’s research will incorporate world modeling and object learning to pass information between vessels, allowing for improved vessel behavior and collaboration.
Sustainability
Seafar recognises that sustainability risks can reduce the ability to generate value in the shipping industry. However, there are real business opportunities for the company to provide sustainable solutions for our customers and stakeholders.
Seafar commits to actively engage and cooperate with stakeholders in the industry to develop the technologies needed to reduce shipping’s carbon footprint, and to achieve zero carbon shipping.
Sustainable business
As a pioneer in the shipping industry, Seafar wants to be a driver to innovate and implement new technologies to accelerate the path to zero carbon shipping.
By using new technologies shipping companies can continually improve their efficiency of operations. Efficiency measures can bring pollution down, but also strengthen the business case for the further investments in green and zero carbon propulsion technologies or shift to clean fuel. The challenge is to create commercially viable zero emission shipping, Seafar wants to play a key roll in overcome this challenge.
Sustainable work
The goal of Seafar’s sustainable busininess strategy is to make a positive impact on society and industry. Automation, robotics and AI in an industry with long traditions of seafarers and sailing personnel does not imply the destruction of jobs in the sector. Instead, Seafar offers an extension of the current jobs in shipping.
Partnerships
Seafar has established a range of cooperations and partnerships on a technological and legislative level. Together with these partners, Seafar is working towards the shipping of the future.
