Vessel tracking
This disclosure provides a data-driven approach to departure detection. In particular, the disclosed approach uses location data, such as GPS, which is readily available for many vessels globally and historically through the automatic identification system (AIS). The approach clusters this data and then constructs a convex hull around these clusters for each port to define a port area. A vessel is then determined as departed when it leaves that port area. Clustering is computationally efficient as a number of optimised algorithms exist, which means even a very large dataset like historical locations of thousands of vessels can be processed relatively quickly. Further, the departure detection enables accurate estimation of arrival times. Further, actions can be triggered by the departure determination, such as automatic control of cranes, trucks, trains and other port equipment.
1. A method for vessel tracking, the method comprising:
detecting that a vessel has entered a port area at an entry point and exited the port area at an exit point, the port area defined by a bound of the port area, and the port area comprising at least a port and a waiting area outside the port;
determining a centre point located between the entry point and the exit point;
determining an adjustment point at a terminal point of a vector extending from the centre point, the vector determined based on an entry direction of travel of the vessel at the entry point and an exit direction of travel of the vessel at the exit point;
adjusting the bound of the port area by including the adjustment point as a corner of the bound of the port area;
determining tracking data indicative of movement of a tracked vessel based on whether the tracked vessel is within the port area.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the port area comprises a polygon and including the adjustment point as the corner of the bound of the port area comprises using the adjustment point as a corner of the polygon.
3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising:
receiving geographical location data indicative of geographical locations of respective vessels, at least a first vessel of the vessels berthed at the port and at least a second vessel of the vessels at the waiting area outside the port;
clustering the geographical locations of the respective vessels to determine clusters; and
determining the bound of the port area that bounds the clusters.
4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising determining corners of the polygon to bound the clusters by the polygon.
5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the polygon comprises a convex hull of the geographical locations in the clusters.
6. The method of claim 3 , further comprising:
initializing the port area with an initial port area; and
adjusting the initial port area based on the clusters to determine the bounds of the port area.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the vector is a mean vector of the entry direction and the exit direction.
8. The method of claim 1 , wherein detecting that a vessel has entered a port area at the entry point and exited the port area at the exit point is conditional on that the vessel having entered the port area a second time, wherein the second time is within a predefined time period from a first time the vessel has entered the port area.
9. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the tracking data comprises detecting a departure of the tracked vessel and detecting the departure of the tracked vessel comprises detecting vessel movement from within the port area to outside the port area.
10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising determining an estimated time of arrival based on detecting the departure of the tracked vessel.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the departure of the tracked vessel is detected by a first software system and the method further comprises generating, by the first software system, an event to notify a second software system of the detected departure of the tracked vessel.
12. The method of claim 11 , further comprising, triggering, by the event, an action performed by the second software system.
13. A non-transitory computer readable medium with software code stored thereon that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of claim 1 .
14. A computer system for vessel tracking, the computer system comprising a processor configured to:
detect that a vessel has entered a port area at an entry point and exited the port area at an exit point, the port area defined by a bound of the port area, and the port area comprising at least a port and a waiting area outside the port;
determine a centre point located between the entry point and the exit point;
determine an adjustment point at a terminal point of a vector extending from the centre point, the vector determined based on an entry direction of travel of the vessel at the entry point and an exit direction of travel of the vessel at the exit point;
adjust the bound of the port area by including the adjustment point as a corner of the bound of the port area; and
determine tracking data indicative of movement of a tracked vessel based on whether the tracked vessel is within the port area.