American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier (ARC) and Liberty Maritime Corp (Liberty) partner with Orca AI to drive safer and more efficient operations

Leading US Ro-Ro operators invest in automated situational awareness platform to empower crews with enhanced vision capabilities

Maritime technology company Orca AI has secured deals with US Ro-Ro operators Liberty Maritime Corporation (Liberty) and American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier (ARC) to deploy its automated situational awareness platform across their respective fleets. Liberty was one of the early collaborators with Orca AI, deploying the first Orca AI unit on a US flag Ro-Ro vessel (Liberty Pride) in 2019.

The platform, which is installed on Liberty’s ro-ro vessels and on ARC’s entire fleet, acts as a fully automatic watch-keeper, powered by computer vision and deep learning algorithms that detect, track and classify navigation-applicable targets that may pose a risk to the vessel.
It is operational 24/7, prioritises risk and presents it in a user-friendly interface. An office dashboard also highlights potential high-risk events, providing the operations teams ashore with insights and recommendations that help them to enhance the safety of their fleets.

Fred Finger, SVP of Operations of American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier (ARC), commented: “ARC is pleased to have added Orca AI to our suite of bridge resource tools. This technology brings an additional level of situational awareness to assist our bridge teams in their decision-making process.”

“We were looking for a solution that allows our operations team and masters to optimise vessel safety while adhering to vessel schedule requirements. We chose to partner with Orca AI to enhance the safety of our operations and to provide our fleet management team a more in-depth understanding of how our ro-ro vessels are performing under various navigational conditions,” said Joshua M. Shapiro, COO of Liberty Maritime Corporation.

Commenting on the deal with ARC and Liberty, Yarden Gross, CEO and Co-Founder of Orca AI, said: “We are excited to work with Liberty and ARC, two of the US’ leading ro-ro operators and innovation-driven companies, who understand that technology is a key enabler of safer and more efficient shipping operations.”

American Roll-On Roll-Off Carrier (ARC) provides port-to-port and end-to-end transport of heavy vehicles, helicopters, household goods, privately-owned vehicles and other equipment for the US government and its various agencies. The ro-ro operator also carries agricultural and construction equipment for developing nations.

New York-based Liberty Maritime Corporation (Liberty) is a ship management company whose services include vessel operations, chartering and maintenance; engineering and technical; crew training and placement; and cargo loading, handling and discharge. The company’s ro-ro vessels transport vehicles, cars and trucks, heavy equipment and machinery and specialised cargo.