Amazon Web Services maritime AI hub to be built in Singapore

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is to develop a new maritime Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI–ML) Digital Hub in collaboration with the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), following the signing of a new memorandum of understanding between the organizations.

The first facility of its kind in the ASEAN region, the AI–ML Digital Hub will leverage AWS cloud technologies to support trials of AI and generative AI (GenAI) capabilities on Green and Digital Shipping Corridors, optimising routes and fuel consumption, carbon emissions accounting, and just-in-time arrivals to help ships operate more efficiently.

MPA says it will also tap the Amazon Sustainability Data Initiative to accelerate sustainability research and innovation by reducing the cost and time required to acquire and analyse large sustainability datasets.

The two organisations plan to conduct training, incubation initiatives, and immersion programmes to assist maritime industry employees and stakeholders, particularly those in small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to build up their cloud, data, and AI skills, with the first training programme expected to roll out by end of 2024.

The deal was one of a host of new digital initiatives announced during Singapore Maritime Week, which also included the development of an AI-enabled Next Generation Vessel Traffic Management System (NGVTMS) in the port city, with MPA awarding a tender to Tidalis, Kongsberg Norcontrol and Wartsila to develop prototypes at MPA’s Maritime Innovation Lab 2.0 over the next 15 months, before embarking on full-scale development of the system.

The NGVTMS will be based on an open system architecture and include features such as data analytics to identify traffic hotspots and machine learning to predict collisions and enable vessel traffic officers to handle higher volumes and more complex vessel traffic safely.

On the fuel safety side, MPA has collaborated with Esri Singapore, the Agency for Science, Technology and Research’s Institute of High Performance Computing and the Technology Centre for Offshore and Marine to develop a digital twin proof-of-concept of a methanol bunkering leak incident.

The digital twin runs on an interactive web application that integrates weather and ocean current predictions and AIS data to present visualisations of chemical plume dispersions in the event of a bunkering incident involving alternative fuels.

The system is expected to assist planners’ understanding of the behaviour of such plume clouds under various conditions and guide the development of safety and incident response plans and standards.

Finally, MPA, Motion Ventures and PIER71 have announced the launch of a new Maritime Singapore Startup Ecosystem Map. The first map of its kind in Singapore, the publication highlights active Singapore-based MarineTech startups according to their focus areas.

The publication aims to assist maritime companies, technology companies, or venture capitalists in discovering startups or potential MarineTech systems to create better networks and opportunities for collaboration in the maritime sector. The map is now available from the Motion Ventures, PIER71 and MPA websites.