As more and more oceanographic buoys are being deployed around the world, incidents of ships striking these buoys are also increasing. Often times the impact of the strike can be severe enough to damage a buoy, or even knock it off its mooring and set it adrift. Without a clear time frame of when the strike occurred, there has historically been no way to determine the cause of costly (and often hazardous) buoy damage.

Until now.

SeaView Systems’ SVS-603 wave sensor has been enhanced with ship strike detection capabilities that can trigger an alert based on buoy motion parameters that indicate a ship strike (or other anomalous conditions). The alert allows prompt response to assess potential damage. The date and time associated with the alert can then be matched to nearby ships at the time of a strike based on Automatic Identification System (AIS) data.

Connecting the alert information from the SVS-603 with readily available AIS information makes it possible to connect a strike with local vessel traffic, information that is extremely useful in determining conditions (and potentially responsibility) for costly buoy damage.

The SVS-603 wave sensor is widely used to add wave-sensing capabilities to legacy buoys as part of various buoy networks for weather and environmental data collection, as well as being used to add wave sensing to various autonomous surface and submersible vehicles. Ship strike detection is just one of several enhancements included in the latest updates.

For more information, contact info@seaviewsystems.com.