The Virtual Watch Tower: AI Transforms Shipping Data

The Virtual Watch Tower (VWT) is a new digital tool built on advanced AI integration to improve maritime transport efficiencies and build more resilient chains while helping to decarbonise the maritime industry’s supply chain and logistics. The prototype is presented for the first time at the Singapore Maritime Week (SMW) 2024. Dubbed the Virtual Watch Tower (VWT), this technology-driven initiative will tackle shared challenges along corridors and international supply chain and logistics networks.

“The Virtual Watch Tower (VWT) project was conceptualised to develop a solution to enhance cargo visibility, tracking, and early warning for potential disruptions in the maritime supply chain. A collaboration between A*STAR’s IHPC and RISE under the SMI-RISE Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2022, the solution seeks to foster collaborative decision-making amongst the various stakeholders in the supply chain. The unveiling of the VWT prototype during Singapore Maritime Week marks a significant milestone, and we look forward to the transformation it will bring to the maritime landscape”, said Mr Tan Cheng Peng, Executive Director of the Singapore Maritime Institute.

VWT is financed by national funders SMI and Vinnova and supported by technology companies Transporeon, Marine Benchmark, YLOAD, and Fujitsu. Scania, Here Technologies, Einride, Chalmers, and the University of Gothenburg are co-shaping digital solutions and community governance.

“Transport is part of the shippers’ Scope 3, which typically accounts for 90% of their emissions. VWT aims to become the primary data-sharing community, allowing for more accurate CO2e calculations. This is an enormous challenge to everyone in the end-to-end supply chain who must contribute primary data for this to work – from ports to trucks and terminal operators. Need to calculate their emissions to comply with regulations, reduce their carbon footprint, and help shippers calculate their Scope 3 emissions”, explained Mikael Lind, RISE, Research Institute of Sweden.

VWT’s primary goal is to drive on-demand collaboration around specific shipments based on data sharing through a push mechanism, with complete data control staying with the VWT community members. The objective is to offer situational awareness of essential transport and logistics assets, such as cargo and containers. VWT aims to help facilitate collaborative decision-making among stakeholders based on improved data insights. This will generate logistics control towers for end-to-end operational logistics and supply chain monitoring and intelligent resilience among global supply chain actors by sharing private data enriched by public data.

The VWT initiative was born out of a call for action from the shipping industry. Global supply chains have been tremendously disrupted in recent years, with reliability in ocean shipping plummeting from around 70 % pre-pandemic to 30 %. The lack of data visibility exacerbates these disruptions and inadequate reporting of port backlogs, inclement weather, and other disruptions. To bring clarity to this information vacuum is where the value of the Virtual Watch Tower lies: in providing automated, real-time updates on supply to all parties, as well as an integrated standard platform to effect solutions, the software increases not only the visibility but also the legibility of shipping data.

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NOTE: This press release is by the Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), with a quote by SMI Executive Director.