As a core component of the maritime Internet of Things (IoT), the Automatic Identification System (AIS) continuously collects dynamic vessel navigation data, providing a solid foundation for addressing complex maritime traffic prediction tasks that support intelligent Vessel Traffic Services (VTS), such as vessel trajectory prediction and vessel arrival time (VAT) estimation. However, existing methods typically focus on single prediction objectives, falling short of meeting practical multi-task requirements. To address this gap, this study proposes a geospatial grid-constrained deep learning framework based on AIS data to simultaneously handle three key prediction tasks: vessel trajectory prediction, whether the vessel arrives within the specified time, and VAT. The framework incorporates a dynamic patch construction method and a Graph Soft Evolution (GSE) module to capture temporal correlations among observations under spatial grid constraints. An encoder-decoder architecture is introduced, where the encoder employs a Squeeze-and-Excitation (SE) block to adaptively select feature channels, and the decoder models dependencies across both variable and temporal dimensions. In a case study of New York Harbor, the model achieved an R² of 0.8386 and RMSE of 0.0329 for latitude increment prediction, and an R² of 0.8432 with RMSE of 0.0322 for longitude increment prediction. It also attained 99.83% accuracy in arrival status prediction and an R² of 0.9350 with RMSE of 0.0701 for VAT prediction. The framework demonstrated effectiveness in port scheduling and robust generalizability in cross-validation experiments at the Port of Los Angeles, thereby demonstrating its substantial potential to enhance the operational efficiency of VTS within maritime IoT systems.
4Maritime vessel movement prediction: A temporal convolutional network model with optimal look-back window size determination
Maritime vessel movement prediction: A temporal convolutional network model with optimal look-back window size determination
Read more11Vessel Sailing Patterns Analysis from S-AIS Data Dased on K-means Clustering Algorithm
Automatic Identification System (AIS) provides abundant near real-time information of moving vessels in the sea of the whole world and has been widely used in the fields of vessel collision avoidance, Maritime Situation Awareness (MSA) and ocean surveillance. The development of satellite-based AIS further expands the range of AIS and enables a wide converge of AIS data collection, which solves the problem of lacking AIS data in high-seas. At the same time, AIS data provides a rich source for data mining for maritime traffic analysis. In this paper, a typical clustering algorithm called K-means is applied to deal with the Space-based AIS(S-AIS) data received by “TianTuo-3” satellite developed by National University of Defense Technology. We use Elbow Rule to determine the optimal number of clusters and calculate the normalized standard deviation of COG(Course Over Ground) and SOG(Speed Over Ground) of vessels in south Africa area as their features to conduct clustering. This method is supposed to evaluate vessels' sailing stability and used in detection of low-likelihood behaviors or anomalies of vessels.
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The research of traffic flow in LaoTieshan channel based on AIS data
In order to study the ship traffic flow in LaoTieshan channel, this paper rewrites the rules of NS (Nagel-Schreckenberg) model of Cellular Automata (CA) based on AIS（Automatic Identification System） data. By referring to the idea of synchronous flow in three-phase traffic flow theory and introducing the speed adaptation mechanism into the simulation, the new model reproduces the traffic flow of LaoTieshan channel and gets the relevant fundamental diagrams. Compared with the actual flow-density diagram drawn from AIS data, it is found that the simulated flow generated by the improved model is more in line with the actual condition, and also conforms to the phase transition of traffic flow in LaoTieshan channel. The method and idea of the simulation are helpful to explain and investigate some complex situations in LaoTieshan channel.
Read more11Unsupervised maritime traffic pattern extraction from spatio-temporal data
Maritime traffic pattern extraction is a fundamental and crucial factor for maritime surveillance and anomaly detection. Emerging technologies like Automatic Identification System (AIS) provides multi-dimensional data which is used to construct a maritime traffic model. In this paper, we propose a framework of maritime traffic pattern extraction from vessel AIS information, which learns a traffic pattern using an unsupervised technique, and can be applied on historical Automatic Identification System data. AIS data is a kind of spatio-temporal data that contains information of location data, as well as time stamps. In this way, traffic pattern is described by AIS data. Furthermore, we conduct a simulation experiment that extracts traffic pattern from the AIS data through the unsupervised technique. The proposed framework takes advantage of AIS data, which is a type of the spatiotemporal data that consists of vessel motion information, to perform the experiment. The result shows that the unsupervised framework converts useful information from raw AIS data to effective traffic pattern. The proposed method strongly supports the further research on maritime traffic pattern extraction of AIS data. Besides, an overview of the framework and the unsupervised technique for high-level maritime situation awareness is presented.
Read more119Recreational vessels without Automatic Identification System (AIS) dominate anthropogenic noise contributions to a shallow water soundscape
Recreational boating is an increasing activity in coastal areas and its spatiotemporal overlap with key habitats of marine species pose a risk for negative noise impacts. Yet, recreational vessels are currently unaccounted for in vessel noise models using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. Here we conduct a case study investigating noise contributions from vessels with and without AIS (non-AIS) in a shallow coastal area within the Inner Danish waters. By tracking vessels with theodolite and AIS, while recording ambient noise levels, we find that non-AIS vessels have a higher occurrence (83%) than AIS vessels, and that motorised recreational vessels can elevate third-octave band noise centred at 0.125, 2 and 16 kHz by 47–51 dB. Accordingly, these vessels dominated the soundscape in the study site due to their high numbers, high speeds and proximity to the coast. Furthermore, recreational vessels caused 49–85% of noise events potentially eliciting behavioural responses in harbour porpoises (AIS vessels caused 5–24%). We therefore conclude that AIS data would poorly predict vessel noise pollution and its impacts in this and other similar marine environments. We suggest to improve vessel noise models and impact assessments by requiring that faster and more powerful recreational vessels carry AIS-transmitters.
Read more4Path planning for large ships in inland waterways considering risk assessment of AIS data
Path planning for large ships in inland waterways considering risk assessment of AIS data
1Application of Augmented Reality in Waterway Traffic Management Using Sparse Spatiotemporal Data
The development of China’s digital waterways has led to the extensive deployment of cameras along inland waterways. However, the limited processing and utilization of digital resources hinder the ability to provide waterway services. To address this issue, this paper introduces a novel waterway perception approach based on an intelligent navigation marker system. By integrating multiple sensors into navigation markers, the fusion of camera video data and automatic identification system (AIS) data is achieved. The proposed method of an enhanced one-stage object detection algorithm improves detection accuracy for small vessels in complex inland waterway environments, while an object-tracking algorithm ensures the stable monitoring of vessel trajectories. To mitigate AIS data latency, a trajectory prediction algorithm is employed through region-based matching methods for the precise alignment of AIS data with pixel coordinates detected in video feeds. Furthermore, an augmented reality (AR)-based traffic situational awareness framework is developed to dynamically visualize key information. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model significantly outperforms mainstream algorithms. It achieves exceptional robustness in detecting small targets and managing complex backgrounds, with data fusion accuracy ranging from 84.29% to 94.32% across multiple tests, thereby substantially enhancing the spatiotemporal alignment between AIS and video data.
Read more19Artificial Force Fields for Multi-agent Simulations of Maritime Traffic: A Case Study of Chinese Waterway
Artificial Force Fields for Multi-agent Simulations of Maritime Traffic: A Case Study of Chinese Waterway
4Identifying Behaviours Indicative of Illegal Fishing Activities in Automatic Identification System Data
Identifying illegal fishing activities from Automatic Identification System (AIS) data is difficult since AIS messages are broadcast cooperatively, the ship’s master controls the timing, and the content of the transmission and the activities of interest usually occur far away from the shore. This paper presents our work to predict ship types using AIS data from satellites: in such data, there is a pronounced imbalance between the data for different types of ships, the refresh rate is relatively low, and there is a misreporting of information. To mitigate these issues, our prediction algorithm only uses the sequence of ports the ships visited, as inferred from the positions reported in AIS messages. Experiments involving multiple machine learning algorithms showed that such port visits are informative features when inferring ship type. In particular, this was shown to be the case for the fishing vessels, which is the focus of this paper. We then applied a KD-tree to efficiently identify pairs of ships that are close to one another. As this activity is usually dangerous, multiple occurrences of such encounters that are linked to one ship sensibly motivate extra attention. As a result of applying the analysis approach to a month of AIS data related to a large area in Southeast Asia, we identified 17 cases of potentially illegal behaviours.
Read more97Assessing the fishing footprint using data integrated from different tracking devices: Issues and opportunities
Assessing the fishing footprint using data integrated from different tracking devices: Issues and opportunities
1Vessel trajectory classification from a graph network perspective
Maritime transportation is the cornerstone of the global economy, making understanding vessel activities and their impacts vital. This paper presents a graph-based approach for classifying navigational statuses of vessel trajectories, employing a hierarchical multi-classification deep learning framework using Automatic Identification System (AIS) data. AIS messages are first segmented into continuous tracks, then divided into fixed-size mini-trajectories called a ‘trajectlet’. Labels are assigned using domain knowledge and rule-based methods. Each trajectlet is modelled as a directed acyclic graph, capturing sequential and spatio-temporal movement dynamics. A Graph Neural Network (GNN) first classifies the AIS messages within each trajectlet as ‘stationary’ or ‘underway’. These node-level predictions are then pooled and combined with global features of each trajectlet, and then passed through a multi-layer perceptron to classify the entire trajectlet into one of four navigational statuses. The framework is validated on AIS data from vessels in UK waters, achieving 98% accuracy and F-score, and a 99% AUC–ROC, demonstrating strong predictive performance. This method enhances understanding of vessel operations and supports applications in emissions modelling, economic forecasting, autonomous navigation, and maritime situational awareness. • Models AIS messages as graphs with spatio-temporal and sequential links. • Classifies vessel status using feature-level attention in a GNN framework. • Combines node and graph-level outputs in a hierarchical multi-level classification. • Achieves 98% accuracy and F1-score, 99% AUC–ROC on UK AIS data. • Supports autonomy, port monitoring, emissions and economic modelling.
Read more55Ship Trajectory Reconstruction from AIS Sensory Data via Data Quality Control and Prediction
Accurate ship trajectory plays an important role for maritime traffic control and management, and ship trajectory prediction with Automatic Identification System (AIS) data has attracted considerable research attentions in maritime traffic community. The raw AIS data may be contaminated by noises, which limits its usage in maritime traffic management applications in real world. To address the issue, we proposed an ensemble ship trajectory reconstruction framework combining data quality control procedure and prediction module. More specifically, the proposed framework implemented the data quality control procedure in three steps: trajectory separation, data denoising, and normalization. In greater detail, the data quality control procedure firstly identified outliers from the raw ship AIS data sample, which were further cleansed with the moving average model. Then, the denoised data were normalized into evenly distributed data series (in terms of time interval). After that, the proposed framework predicted ship trajectory with the artificial neural network. We verified the proposed model performance with two ship trajectories downloaded from public accessible AIS data base.
Read more12Development of a Gridded Maritime Traffic DB for e-Navigation
Development of a Gridded Maritime Traffic DB for e-Navigation
Semi-supervised vessel trajectory analysis for unregulated fishing activity detection
Maritime crimes such as Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, piracy, and smuggling pose significant threats to marine ecosystems, trade, and coastal security, especially in developing regions. Automatic Identification System (AIS) data offers a scalable solution for vessel monitoring, but the use of fully supervised machine learning models is constrained by the substantial manual effort and expert input required to label training data. To address this challenge, authors propose a semi-supervised machine learning pipeline that classifies vessel activities from AIS data without relying on pre-labeled datasets. Our approach leverages scaled geospatial and temporal features, including latitude, longitude, speed, and time difference, to train multiple Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) on trajectory segments. These segments are then grouped using similarity-based K-means clustering and subsequently classified with supervised models, including Random Forest and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks. The pipeline effectively identifies and labels maritime activities such as sailing, fishing, idling, and other activities. Experiments were conducted on a dataset comprising 156,379 AIS points, partitioned into training and test sets. The LSTM-based supervised model achieved an F1 score of 0.86 on the local test set, while the end-to-end pipeline achieved an F1 score of 0.5 on a global evaluation set. These results demonstrate the feasibility of automating maritime activity classification through artificial intelligence and hybrid learning, offering a scalable solution for real-world maritime surveillance.
Read more93Incorporation of AIS data-based machine learning into unsupervised route planning for maritime autonomous surface ships
Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) are deemed as the future of maritime transport. Although showing attractiveness in terms of the solutions to emerging challenges such as carbon emission and insufficient labor caused by black swan events such as COVID-19, the applications of MASS have revealed problems in practice, among which MASS navigation safety presents a prioritized concern. To ensure safety, rational route planning for MASS is evident as the most critical step to avoiding any relevant collision accidents. This paper aims to develop a holistic framework for the unsupervised route planning of MASS using machine learning methods based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, including the coherent steps of new feature measurement, pattern extraction, and route planning algorithms. Historical AIS data from manned ships are trained to extract and generate movement patterns. The route planning for MASS is derived from the movement patterns according to a dynamic optimization method and a feature extraction algorithm. Numerical experiments are constructed on real AIS data to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method in solving the route planning for different types of MASS.
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