A team of AI researchers, video-game developers, 3D designers and hardware engineers has created the Lookout camera system, which is intended to detect marine hazards “beyond human capability.”

The Lookout camera system uses computer vision algorithms to find and track marine hazards, including other vessels, buoys, debris, whales and people in the water. The system combines data from charts, AIS, radar target and online sources into a 3D augmented reality view.

According to the Lookout team, this system reduces the captain’s cognitive load and enhances situational awareness, making decision-making more efficient while underway.

The Lookout system also uses data from other NMEA-compatible sensors, and it integrates with modern multifunction displays from Garmin, Furuno, Raymarine and Simrad, as well as with smartphones.

“We’re living in an era where AI, augmented reality, and spatial computing are transforming navigation and safety,” David Rose, Lookout’s CEO, stated in a press release. “Boating should benefit from the same innovation we see in automotive and aerospace. Lookout integrates AI tech with intuitive, beautiful and beneficial software design, providing clarity especially in challenging conditions like low light, fog and crowded harbors.”

The Lookout system has three components: a camera with infrared night-vision, high-resolution daylight zoom and 360-degree views for docking; a “brain” powered by Nvidia technology for processing multiple data streams and creating the augmented reality view; and an optional cloud service for boats with Starlink or other internet connections, to enable community-driven data sharing.

Rich Miner, inventor of Android, a Google Ventures partner and an avid boater, said he invested in Lookout “not only because of its potential in recreational boats, but also because it’s a must-have technology for ferries worried about hitting logs, law enforcement and military vessels, inland tugs and workboats.”

Tod Tally, general manager of the Viking Yachts subsidiary Atlantic Marine Electronics, is also helping to promote the system. “Lookout’s sensing and data-sharing capability is what boats need today,” he stated in the company’s press release. “Knowing when a nearby boat detects a floating log or a whale is a game changer. Like Waze, it provides a network of lookout eyes on the water, ensuring everyone’s safety.”

What is the pricing for the Lookout system? The camera retails for $3,995. Customers can choose between the Lookout Brain for $4,995 and the Brain Pro for $9,995, with the Pro version offering higher frame rates and resolution for detecting smaller, more distant targets.

Take the next step: go to getalookout.com

The post Smarter Boating Ahead: AI Tech Enhances Onboard Cameras appeared first on Yachting.

Few things annoy boaters more than clutter on a radar screen. The last thing a skipper needs while tracking an oncoming boat is a bunch of unwanted signals from land, birds or weather. Clutter can turn a radar screen into an indecipherable mess, making it harder than it should be to maintain situational awareness and be safe out on the water.

That’s why it’s good news to see Garmin incorporating scan averaging as a feature in its new GMR xHD3 series of open-array radars. These are the first magnetron radars from Garmin to have the scan-averaging feature, which helps filter out sea clutter and interference on the display.

“We are excited to build on the foundation of our previous open-array radars and bring more premium features that will appeal to mariners of all types,” says Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of global consumer sales. “Whether you’re cruising overnight, fishing offshore or just out for the day, Garmin’s new xHD3 open-array radars look far and wide to deliver an incredibly clear picture of what’s out there, maximizing situational awareness and giving you more peace of mind every time you leave the dock.”

Additional features include target-size processing, which uses pulse expansion to help optimize on-screen object shapes for better interpretation at all range scales, and true echo trails, which display a historical trail of boats on the water, removing relative motion influence to help quickly identify moving targets and potential collision threats. For anglers who want to follow birds to the fish, the xHD3 open arrays have auto bird gain and a bird-mode preset feature.

An overlay feature on the GMR xHD3 series lets the single antenna provide split-screen, side-by-side images on a compatible chart plotter, with independent settings for close and long range. A radar overlay can also be added on top of a chart view, so skippers can see any differences between the chart and what the radar is showing.

All of these features add up to a better sense of whatever is around the boat, which, in turn, creates a safer and better boating experience overall.  

Sizing Options

The antennas are available in 4- or 6-foot versions with 4, 12 or 25 kW of power, and they have a 100-knot wind rating, which Garmin says is commercial-grade weather performance for recreational boaters. Rotation speeds are 24 and 48 rpm for fast redraw rates.

In the Zone

This series of radars lets boaters use Garmin’s Guard Zone feature on compatible chart plotters. Guard Zone helps create even more situational awareness on board, since it can alert boaters whenever an object comes within a boater-defined area around the vessel.

The post Garmin GMR xHD3 Radars See Everything appeared first on Yachting.

Clear above, visibility unlimited. These glorious conditions greeted us as Simrad ambassador Mark Maus drove us down Fort Lauderdale, Florida’s Stranahan River aboard his Yellowfin 36 center-console. However, it was impossible to miss the half-dozen container ships anchored a few miles offshore. We entered open waters, and Maus turned to port, paralleling the ships and spinning his Simrad Halo 3004 open-array radar. I stared at the 19-inch Simrad NSO evo3S multifunction display. The ships were there, of course, but the radar was also painting targets behind these giant metal walls. I studied the screen and compared it with the actual horizon. Moments later, a distant sailboat passed behind a ship and heaved into view, confirming the Halo 3004’s impressive returns.

Pulse-compression radars arrived in 2015, and Doppler processing arrived in 2016. Today, pulse-compression and Doppler are the industry standards. While other manufacturers build more powerful open-array radars, Simrad’s Halo 2000 and Halo 3000 radars deliver more power on target than the company’s previous-generation offerings while adding proprietary features and, for serious anglers who can accommodate a Halo 3000, Simrad’s Bird+ mode.

Halo 2000 radars are available in three sizes. As their monikers portend, Halo 2003 radars ($6,400) employ 3-foot arrays, Halo 2004 systems ($6,900) leverage 4-foot arrays, and Halo 2006 radars ($7,500) have 6-foot arrays. Halo 3000 radars are available in two sizes: Halo 3004 ($8,500), which has a 4-foot array, and Halo 3006 ($9,000), which features a 6-foot array.

All Halo 2000 radars transmit at 50 watts, while Halo 3000 radars transmit at 130 watts. The Halo 2000 radars can detect targets up to 72 nautical miles away, while Halo 3000 models deliver a maximum range of 96 nautical miles. They each have a minimum range of 20 feet. Both radars spin at variable speeds, ranging from 16 to 48 rpm. Spin rate is governed by the radar’s current operating mode, with closer-range operations requiring faster rotations than longer-range operations.

“Under the hood, everything is new,” says Laurie Bates, product director of digital systems at Navico Group, about Halo 2000 and 3000 radars, adding that this is the first major platform upgrade to Simrad’s open-array radar systems since 2015. That said, Simrad released its radome-enclosed Halo20 and Halo20+ radars, which transmit at 20 and 25 watts, respectively, in 2019, and Halo 2000 and Halo 3000 use this architecture. “We improved everything,” Bates says, adding that this includes new RF bricks, motors, gear boxes and drivetrains.

While their antenna arrays and transmitted power differ, Simrad’s Halo 2000 and Halo 3000 radars offer identical feature lists, with one significant exception: Bird+ mode (more on that later). These shared features include ZoneTrack, which Bates says is effectively a zone-based automatic-radar-plotting aid (ARPA) that automatically detects and tracks up to 50 targets within its two user-designated zones (that means users can set and define the scope shape and position of their two ZoneTrack zones); VelocityTrack, which is Simrad’s proprietary Doppler processing feature; and Dangerous Target Alerts, which identifies targets on collision courses and provides their relative range, bearing and heading.

Additionally, Halo 2000 and Halo 3000 radars support Target Tracking, where the radar concurrently seeks—and tracks—targets over short, medium and long ranges while recording a history of each target; and Watch Target, which allows a user to manually select onscreen targets for the radar to track. Both radars also feature preset user modes (read Bird, Harbor, Offshore and Weather) that electronically optimize the system’s settings to best match the vessel’s operating environment.

Halo 2000 and Halo 3000 radars also deliver dual ranges and the ability to generate synthetic Target Trails, the latter of which graphically depicts the target’s historical radar pings as onscreen trails. These trails, Bates says, provide the skipper with improved situational awareness. “Target Trails gives users confidence to see what [onscreen targets] are doing,” he says, adding that ferries or ships tend to sail in straight, shortest-course lines, while recreational vessels (say, racing sailboats) tend to move more sporadically. “You can see if [the target] is professionally or amateur-operated,” he says.

While Halo 2000 and Halo 3000 share many features—and they’re both bundled inside IP67-rated housings that can operate in winds up to 80 knots—Halo 3000 also comes with Simrad’s all-new Bird+ mode, which uses the radar’s 130 watts to locate flyers up to 8 nautical miles away.

“We actually deliberately reduce the range resolution,” Bates says of Bird+ mode, adding that Halo 3000 radars leverage a series of “range buckets.” “We enlarge the size of those [buckets] so we can try to capture a flock of birds, so [there is] a larger number of weak targets within each given range bucket.”

If this sounds counterintuitive, keep reading: “Having reduced range resolution, typically in a radar, this would be bad,” Bates continues. “But in this case, we want to do that to help us find birds.” Because of this, he says, Halo 3000 offers one range (not two) when operating in Bird+ mode. “In Bird+ mode, we’re very much saying, ‘Right now, the user has decided that they are very focused on finding birds,’ so we’re going to stop the radar from being distracted by any other mode or any other use case, and we’re 100 percent focused on tuning it for birds.”

In this mode, Dangerous Target Alerts, VelocityTrack and manual-target acquisition still work; however, Bates is clear that when operating in Bird+ mode, Halo 3000 has gone fishing.

Bates also says that the Halo 2000 radar can be fitted aboard vessels ranging from center-consoles to superyachts, while Halo 3000 will work well aboard everything from large center-consoles to larger sport-fishing battlewagons.

As for peering behind ships, Bates says no one can escape the laws of physics. “It’s always going to be challenging to see behind something very large,” he says. Good results, he explains, are “more closely linked to the [post-] processing and the actual pulse scheme that we employ, as opposed to pure [transmitting] power.”

Given the impressive features and the power ratings that are found aboard both new Halos, it’s evident that  Simrad has charted a smart course of investing in its newest radars’ RF energy, both pre- and post-transmission.

Target Practice

Recognizing birds onscreen isn’t always easy. If this sounds familiar, Simrad’s expert suggests buying a few packs of chum and deploying it on a beach in the late afternoon. Then, position your vessel nearby and study your screen. This helps build your visual reference library.

The post Full Vision with New Halo Radars appeared first on Yachting.

The year was 2015. I was with Dave Dunn, Garmin’s senior director of marine sales, aboard Capt. Mike Flowers’ SeaHunter 24 Ruff-n-Uff, slowly approaching Miami’s MacArthur Causeway. Flowers tapped his Garmin multifunction display, and it presented imagery from the Garmin Panoptix PS31 forward-looking sonar.

Dunn cast a lure and, moments later, a tarpon appeared. A dance unfurled, and the target wisely dodged a root canal.

Watching this episode on screen, I was gobsmacked by Panoptix’s LiveVu and RealVu perspectives, which combined information from the forward-looking transducer, multibeam sonar and phased-array technology to produce live, video-type imagery.

Mostly, I was amazed that ceramic bits could yield this kind of water-column awareness.

Darrell Lowrance helped introduce this technology to boaters in 1957 with his Fish-Lo-K-Tor, which provided depth information and detected objects in the water column. Products available today have far better capabilities and onscreen imagery than equipment from just a decade ago.

“Transducers are the key part of the fish finder’s performance: The frequency and power rating of the ceramic determines depth capabilities, coverage under the boat and the ability to see fish in the water column,” says Craig Cushman, Airmar Technology Corp.’s director of marketing. Transducers, he adds, rely on precision timing, much like radars. “The transducer sends acoustic energy throughout the water column and then listens for returning signals. The fish finder then interprets the echo to display what is below the boat.”

Like radars, transducers spend roughly 1 percent of their time transmitting and 99 percent listening for echoes. Transducers are seldom seen, but they take high-voltage electrical pulses (from their networked fish finder, multifunction display or sonar) and convert them to outgoing sound waves that propagate downward and outward in a cone-type shape. Today’s transducers are sensitive enough to discern echoes that are just a few hundredths of a single volt.

Transducers are built like nesting dolls but with piezoceramic elements at their cores. These ceramic elements are made from polarized barium titanate or lead zirconate titanate, look like metal, and can be fabricated into shapes of various complexity. A basic ceramic element might be shaped like a hockey puck, while a more sophisticated element might be formed into a bar, oval, ring or tube.

These ceramic elements are separated from the water on one side by an “acoustic window,” while the rest of the element is encased in a sound-absorbing material that helps direct the sound waves out of, and back through, the acoustically neutral window. The encapsulating material (typically urethane or epoxy) is then encased in the physical housing (usually bronze, molded plastic, stainless steel or urethane). Depending on the transducer, miniaturized printed circuit boards are sometimes embedded in the encapsulating layer that allows the fish finder to automatically adapt to the connected transducer. A pipestem houses electrically shielded cables that run from the yacht’s fish finder or multifunction display to the PCBs and elements.

“The ceramics inside can dramatically change the cost of a transducer,” says Jim McGowan, Raymarine’s Americas marketing manager.

Some entry-level transducers might employ a single piezoceramic element, while high-end transducers might involve 16 to 18 elements. Transducers can be manufactured to “resonate” at a specific frequency (say, 50 kHz), dual frequencies (50/200 kHz) or over a sweep of frequencies.

“You can only play so many songs with two keys on the piano,” Dunn says, adding that chirp transducers transmit over a sweep of frequencies, like having a music scale’s worth of notes, but in this case with better target separation and resolution as the result.

According to McGowan, a single-frequency transducer sounds like a ticking watch. “Chirp would sound like a police siren, increasing in pitch,” he says. “The first returns are the first transmissions, so the system has a reference, allowing it to overlap the original pulse with the echo, giving [onscreen] detail.”

Multibeam sonar systems typically employ an array of ceramic elements. These elements can be electronically steered by the transducer’s controlling microprocessors to ring at specific or sequenced times to scan the seafloor, or they can all ring simultaneously. Today’s multibeam and ultrawide-beam systems can also yield high-resolution information about what’s on each side of the keel (sometimes called side-scanning sonar) or, as Dunn and I saw in 2015, forward-looking imagery.

While McGowan says the sport-fishing crowd drives transducer development, the computer-electronics market enables innovation. “We have the advantage of components,” says Cushman, pointing to today’s dime-size PCBs. They’ve “become smaller and cheaper, which lets us put different things inside.”

As with all markets, there are high-end, mid-level and entry-level transducers. When it comes to the high end of the market, Airmar is the undisputed leader. While most of the bigger marine-electronics manufacturers make transducers in-house, they typically build less-complex, high-volume sounders—or, in some cases, highly specialized, high-end transducers (for example, Garmin builds its Panoptix transducers).

According to Cushman, Airmar manufactures roughly 80 to 90 percent of all transducers that operate on at least 600 watts of transmitting power. Airmar-built transducers are sometimes sold with an Airmar badge; other times, they carry third-party branding.

This relationship frees the Big Four (Furuno, Garmin, Navico and Raymarine) to innovate new fish-finding and sonar technologies and specifications, rather than developing transducers, and it allows Airmar to amass the capability and expertise to manufacture at scale and to high industrial standards.

Customers can order Airmar-built transducers that ship with plug-and-play cable connections, and owners can often use existing transducers with other third-party fish finders or multifunction displays. Airmar’s distribution company, Gemeco Marine Accessories, can help customers determine if an existing transducer will work with other equipment. If an existing transducer is compatible, Gemeco can provide the wiring diagram and splice kit to rewire it for use with a new fish finder. Changing out through-hull transducers, however, requires a haulout and a plan.

“Know what you want to do with the system,” McGowan says. “Transducers are fundamental to the performance of the system, and you get what you pay for.”

After all, without good acoustics, how else will you be able to spin a credible onscreen yarn about a big one that got away?

Fitting Considerations

Transducers can be hung from a transom-mounted bracket, or they can be in-hull or through-hull mounted. While each setup has its advantages, through-hulls are best for power cruising and sport fishing yachts. “Airmar has certified installers who have been trained on the best installation practices,” says Airmar’s Craig Cushman.

The post Transducer Technology Improving Underwater Tools appeared first on Yachting.

Jim McGowan, Raymarine’s Americas marketing manager, was aboard a Judge 22 center-console with a 110-watt Cyclone Pro radar and 3-foot antenna array. The boat was heading out of a harbor in Dennis, Massachusetts, when McGowan noticed a family enjoying a late-afternoon stroll on a Cape Cod beach. Then, the Cyclone displayed something curious. “I could track all five contacts on screen,” McGowan says, “and I could see the kids’ heads when they were swimming in the water.

“It’s almost scary how much this radar can pick up,” he added.

Doppler-enabled, solid-state radars arrived in 2016, forever changing navigation. The initial rub, however, was power. The first open-array Doppler-enabled radars (by Garmin) transmitted at 40 watts, while the first radome-enclosed Doppler-enabled radar (by Furuno) boasted 25 watts. Both were a far cry from traditional 25-kilowatt magnetron radars.

Over time, other solid-state radars arrived, offering higher power and more features. Raymarine’s Cyclone radars aren’t the first powerful open-array systems to have solid-state architecture and Doppler processing, but Raymarine is the only manufacturer to employ chirp pulse-compression and major features in an open-array platform that can withstand 100-knot winds.

“Cyclone was designed for the premium motor-cruising and hardcore offshore-fishing markets,” McGowan says, adding that the radar is a good match aesthetically for power yachts 35 feet and larger.

Cyclone radars all have Doppler processing. They can be modularly spec’d with 3-, 4- or 6-foot antenna arrays, as well as 55 watts (Cyclone) or 110 watts (Cyclone Pro) of transmitting power. Cyclone has a 72-nautical-mile range, while Cyclone Pro has a 96-nautical-mile range. All Cyclones can operate at 12, 24, 36, 48 or 60 rpm; they weigh 15.4 to 26.5 pounds; and they have horizontal beam widths of 2.83 (3-foot array), 1.99 (4-foot array) or 1.32 degrees (6-foot array), which can be reduced using beam-sharpening to boost performance.

The Cyclone has a distinctive, aviation-inspired geometry, but “it’s not an airfoil,” McGowan says. “It’s not creating lift or a downforce—it’s neutral.” All cabling is hidden in its rotating pedestal, and its stack height is 13.1 inches.

Collectively, these design elements allow Cyclone to cold-start in 100 knots of apparent air. While this means that Cyclone could theoretically survive a mid-grade Category 3 hurricane, “it’s for today’s high-powered vessels that can run at high speeds,” McGowan says.

Cyclone’s chirp technology is like sonar. “Chirp transmissions look like an arch on an oscilloscope,” McGowan says, adding that their frequency rises over the course of each transmission. “The [radar] reflection of the arch is the opposite of the original transmission.” This allows the radar to determine exactly when each pulse starts and ends, yielding better onscreen target separation.

This same “rising” transmission, which is reminiscent of a police siren, also helps the radar’s Doppler processing. The system paints potentially dangerous targets red, benign targets green, and neutral or stationary targets a third color. Users can set displays to split-screen mode, with Doppler-enhanced imagery displayed on one side and standard radar imagery on the other.

While Cyclone’s Doppler technology helps users differentiate among targets, its professional-grade automatic radar plotting aid automatically tracks up to 50 targets within 12 nautical miles of the yacht. This feature is especially useful when negotiating crowded harbors and waterways.

Cyclone radars can spin at variable speeds, from 12 to 60 rpm, 

depending on the task. “Sixty rpm meets the demand for tracking fast-moving targets at close range,” McGowan says, adding that faster spins make ARPA operations smoother and more accurate. “It gives more sniffs at the target, and it helps the system maintain a tighter lock on targets.” Conversely, slower spins allow the radar to transmit longer pulses for longer-range work.

The RangeFusion feature bolsters situational awareness by combining long- and short-range pulses into a single, high-resolution radar image. “You can be sitting in a harbor, looking at nearby buoys and coastlines, plus distant islands, ships and storms,” McGowan says. “RangeFusion delivers a usable radar image from the center of the scope to the far end of its range.”

Stereo manufacturers commonly use digital signal processing, which allows algorithms to adjust equalizer settings. Radar engineers can likewise use DSP to “teach” a radar what a specific return looks like. This technology, McGowan says, allows Raymarine to create better operating modes than analog filters. For example, “for Harbor Mode, we trained Cyclone to recognize lots of small contacts,” he says. Raymarine also trained Cyclone to expect glass-covered buildings and suppress their false echoes.

Given that Cyclone was partially created for serious offshore anglers, it comes with Cyclone Bird Mode—which uses chirp capabilities to tweak the radar’s gain and tuning settings—and DSP to differentiate birds from sea clutter.

Similar engineering went into Cyclone’s Buoy Mode. “We trained it to recognize aids to navigation,” McGowan says, explaining that buoys are typically augmented with a radio-frequency reflective tape. “We trained [Cyclone] to look for these signatures.”

Cyclone is compatible with only Raymarine’s Axiom displays, and other radars still deliver more power; however, this latter spec could change. Overall, Raymarine’s Cyclone radar should help boaters get on the fish faster while dodging weather and potentially dangerous navigation situations. And given its ability to spot swimmers, it could help rescue anyone who goes overboard.

Beam-Shaping Arrays

While most radars employ patch-array antennas, Raymarine spec’d Cyclones with dielectric-resonator-antenna arrays. “The difference is the way the signal is fed to the radar,” Raymarine’s Jim McGowan says, adding that while these arrays are more expensive, they offer better control over the shape of the radars’ transmitted beams, bolstering performance.

The post Raymarine’s Hurricane-Resistant Radars appeared first on Yachting.

Predicting the future of marine electronics isn’t easy, but these four men are paid to do exactly that. Here’s a look at trends that are likely to be influential during the next five years, from the minds of Dave Dunn, Garmin’s director of sales and marketing for marine; Knut Frostad, CEO of Navico; Eric Kunz, Furuno’s senior product manager; and Jim McGowan, Raymarine’s Americas marketing manager. (Their words have been slightly edited for space and clarity.)

Q: Which consumer electronics trends are likely to affect marine electronics?

A: Dunn: Connectivity and integration. There’s more desire for third-party companies integrating with multifunction displays, and there’s more expectation from customers. I think there will be more boats without buttons and switches, as well as more digital-switching systems.

A: Frostad: Consumer electronics are starting to have a good learning experience. 2020 has been an amazing year for attracting new boaters, but it requires the user experience to be more educational. Voice assistance is becoming big on land. I think there will be more integration with phones and watches. On land, everything has a low-power mode to lower consumption—I think that’s where we’re going with marine.

A: Kunz: I think we’re going to see more control of the vessel and its onboard systems through multifunction displays. We’re going to see new sensors that produce more-accurate information at lower costs. For example, GPS III. I also think there will be more automation between handheld devices and the boat.

A: McGowan: The No. 1 thing I see is connectivity. Everything is connected in a house—temperature, music and security—and the demand is there to do that on boats. Getting to a mass-market solution is going to be key. All levels of vessel monitoring and niceties—turning on lights, engines, and AC and climate control—will be done through mobile devices.

Q: How important will artificial intelligence be?

A: Dunn: We’re seeing more and more augmented reality, and I think that will become more prominent. With AI, it’s hard to say; there are so many variables at sea. I don’t think it will be a prominent feature in the next five years. With 5G networks, you’ll be able to get better weather services from your phone, so maybe there will be better predictive routes with autoguidance, for example, if you go to the same places every weekend.

A: Frostad: Boats are suited to AI because there are a lot of variables that are hard to follow manually. For example, intelligent radar, where the system interprets the image: AI could separate the echoes and create an optimal route, in combination with the autopilot. Finding fish is another possibility. We’re going to use AI to improve the boating experience. For example, we could use machine learning to see how customers use their boats, so when they switch on the battery, the system turns on the boat the way they normally use it.

A: Kunz: I don’t see AI playing a big role in the next five years. But augmented reality, which combines different technologies to improve and automate situational awareness—say, by combining the functions of video, GPS and other sensors in ways that we weren’t able to do before—we’ll do that in the next five years.

A: McGowan: I think it will explode. We’re seeing the beginning with machine vision and advanced processing. It’s not quite AI, but the next logical step is for cameras to identify objects. It’s fair to call machine vision a learning system—it’s got a built-up knowledge base. We’re seeing it in automotive with pedestrian and animal detection and collision avoidance. The marine environment is a good place to develop that kind of technology; there’s a lot of water and not much else.

Q: Will the next breakthroughs be software-driven? Or will hardware and software development remain hand in hand?

A: Dunn: We’ll see faster multifunction-display processors, but the glass will look pretty much the same. Maybe there will be larger screens, but I think the major changes will be software-driven. Everything that we’re developing now for the next five years can run on today’s multifunction displays.

A: Frostad: They’re linked. The more you want to do, the more processor speed you need. We need to innovate quicker, but we can’t launch hardware like iPhones—we don’t have the scale. We’re still in the phase of bigger screens and super-wide format, which has great benefits. Higher-resolution screens mean more details, and details matter. The hardware will improve the user experience, but the software makes the experience better.

A: Kunz: I think it will be hand in hand. Today’s multifunction displays have the power that personal computers had just a few years ago. They’ve got gigabytes of memory, they’re robust, and they’re a dedicated and isolated platform, so they’re hard to hack. I think we’ll see things such as integrating different sensors, say, for personal bathymetric generation.

A: McGowan: I think they’ll remain hand in hand. Memory and processing have gotten cheap, but the software keeps getting more complicated. Companies will need to add processing power to keep it fast. No one likes waiting for a screen to populate—it’s got to be snappy. And when you add AI and internet connectivity, you’ll need horsepower.

Q: Will autonomous vessel operations become important? If so, will electronics or engine manufacturers supply the technology?

A: Dunn: It will absolutely be a big part of the marine-electronics market, likely sooner than later. For example, you’ll see more autodocking capabilities.

A: Frostad: I think marine-electronics manufacturers will provide the user interface through the multifunction display. With autonomous boats, the first step is to assist and not take over. On land, Tesla parks the car on a flat surface. Docking a boat, there are so many types of docks; there can be waves, tide, current and wind. So, we want to complement the user. And it’s not going to be cheap. There are 3,000 boat models, so we’ll need algorithms for each boat.

A: Kunz: Marine-electronics manufacturers will make the sensors, while other companies will make things like thermal and visual cameras and integrate them. There’s a push for engine manufacturers to produce systems that allow marine-electronics companies to control the vessel, but I think it will be a combination of companies.

A: McGowan: Five years from now, I expect a high level of integration between engine manufacturers and anyone they allow to control their engines. This won’t be a DIY kit—engine manufacturers are meticulous about testing third-party electronics on their engines. Engine manufacturers probably don’t have all the expertise; they’re looking for technology partners. Whose name is on it will likely be a business negotiation. Engine manufacturers make great products, but sensing and controls will likely come from the electronics and adjacent markets.

Q: How important will 5G cellular and low- and medium-Earth-orbit satellite networks be?

A: Dunn: It’s hard to say. I don’t think there will be any negative impacts. There’s been a lot written on 5G blocking GPS, but we don’t think it will have any adverse impact. I think there will be more real-time weather streaming and live fuel prices without dedicated communication antennas. There are a lot of green-pasture ideas. I think 5G will give us a lot more options and tools.

A: Frostad: My expectation is that few 5G providers will turn their antennas to the sea, and I expect even shorter ranges with 5G than with 4G. Will medium- and low-Earth-orbit satellites be the answer? Maybe. I haven’t seen Starlink’s prices, but they’ll have the capacity to provide speed and bandwidth offshore. 5G will have an impact, but if a boater is only in range 90 percent of the time, we can’t provide an always-on service. Starlink is interesting because it’s always on.

A: Kunz: These technologies will revolutionize connected boats. Current satellite-communications systems are expensive and bulky. Starlink antennas are 18 inches. I think it will change the way boats interact. Bandwidth will suddenly be available to do things that we haven’t thought of yet. For example, open-ocean AIS and real-time weather that’s sent directly to the multifunction display.

A: McGowan: It’s going to be key to have cheap, fast connectivity everywhere. That’s the biggest shortcoming right now. In a bay, 4G is pretty good, but in coastal waters, you can’t depend on it. Also, if you want to stream, there are data caps and slowdowns, so 5G could be the answer. When low-Earth-orbit satellite networks come online, they’ll be a game-changer. Satcom on low-Earth-orbit networks will be low cost compared to current solutions.

Q: Anything else?

A: Dunn: We’ll see the gap between consumer electronics and marine electronics close faster than ever before, and that’s extremely exciting.

A: Frostad: Twenty years ago, the attitude was, “Don’t touch the nav system,” but now kids see a touchscreen and want to play. Instead of just making electronics more advanced, we want to make them more inclusive. Think of modern TVs: They’re easy to navigate, and we want that user experience on the boat.

A: Kunz: I could see the rise of disruptive technologies—for example, Starlink. I think there will be streamlined navigation systems and increased safety, and I think multifunction displays as glass bridges will continue to evolve. I think there will also be predictive failure analysis, monitored through the multifunction display, where, for example, engines are connected to the internet.

A: McGowan: Connectivity is key to a lot of these questions, but with machine vision and AI, we’re only scratching the surface.

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Recent years have seen an uptick in the number of yachts and adventurous cruisers plying high-latitude waters from Alaska to Antarctica. While stunningly beautiful and largely void of other yachts and people, these regions require different kinds of electronics than a cruise to the Caribbean or a transatlantic passage.

Here’s a look at some systems yachtsmen might want to consider when planning a high-latitude cruise.

FarSounder Argos 350

Icebergs and their broken-off bergy bits are some of the greatest dangers that high-latitude cruisers face. FarSounder’s Argos 350 forward-looking sonar (call for pricing) is designed to spot these dangers for yachts that are 60 to 130-plus feet length overall, providing 1,150 feet of range at 18 knots in open waters.

The system employs a multibeam transducer, a power module, cabling, a processor and proprietary software, and it can be installed during construction or refitting. Once networked, the system delivers imagery to the yacht’s Ethernet network, allowing the imagery to be viewed on compatible screens.

Argos 350 systems provide detailed bottom mapping at a range of up to eight times the water depth, and they can detect objects in the water column out to their maximum 1,150-foot range. The system collects and processes its sonar returns in three dimensions, allowing it to compensate for pitch and roll. Additionally, the system employs color coding to alert users of dense objects, and to indicate depth or signal strength (users can switch between views).

Should the system detect a threat, it delivers audible and/or visual warnings based on a user’s parameters.

To minimize threats even further, anyone operating near ice should dramatically cut the yacht’s speed. While the system delivers 1,150 feet of range at 18 knots, the reality is that at 18 knots, a yacht covers 1,150 feet in 38 seconds. At 5 knots, users have two minutes and 16 seconds of reaction time. Provided that prudent seamanship is exercised, an Argos 350 should allow a yacht to ply truly spectacular waters.

FLIR M364C

Adventure cruising requires sharp eyes, but human eyes simply can’t detect minute thermal differences between an object and its background. This is what FLIR’s thermal-imaging cameras are designed to do. FLIR’s recreational marine cameras range from $3,500 to $180,000, and the M364C ($20,500) is ideally suited to high-latitude cruising.

The gyrostabilized, dual-payload M364C can pan through 360 degrees and tilt through plus or minus 90 degrees. It has a high-definition, Sony-built daylight camera with a 30x optical zoom and 12x digital zoom. All up, this equates to a 360x zoom.

But it’s the unit’s thermal-imaging camera that’s best suited for detecting ice, other vessels and marine life. This camera has a FLIR-built Boson 640 thermal-imaging core that delivers 640-by-512-pixel image resolution, a 24-by-18-degree field of view and an 8x digital zoom.

Additionally, this camera sports FLIR’s Color Thermal Vision and Multispectral Dynamic Imaging (MSX) technologies. CTV blends imagery from the daylight and thermal-imaging cameras and overlays it with color to enhance object identification. MSX adds details that make faint edges look crisp. So the skipper can see, say, a distant bergy bit or a menacing polar bear.

BSB Marine Oscar

BSB Marine developed its Oscar collision-avoidance system for offshore sailors, and then it created Oscar Custom Power for motoryachts.

The optical-based system ($70,000) consists of a vision unit that is mounted aloft and a belowdecks central processing unit. The VU consists of three FLIR-built, 640-by-512 thermal-imaging cameras that deliver 123-degree horizontal and 32-degree vertical fields of view, as well as 3,040 feet of range. The CPU is a black-box computer that analyzes the cameras’ video streams to detect objects in near real time. The system also includes an app that delivers a visual reference and AIS-type information (such as speed and bearing) on the target, and that can reside on a personal computer, wireless device or multifunction display.

The CPU uses artificial intelligence to compare all detected objects with its stored database of 55 million-plus images (including icebergs viewed from myriad angles and in varied sea states). Oscar then automatically adjusts the yacht’s autopilot if it “sees” a navigational danger, and it can simultaneously evade several targets.

As with the other technologies discussed here, slower speeds buy operators more reaction time, which is key for negotiating ice-choked waters.

Furuno Ice Radar

If high-latitude aspirations involve wending through pack ice, then Furuno’s ice-detection radar is worth exploring. The system uses a Furuno X-band navigation radar ($11,000 to $40,000) and a FICE-100 module ($40,000). The FICE-100′s processor leverages the X-band radar’s raw data to create highly detailed composite radar imagery of the surrounding ice pack at a range of 3 to 6 nautical miles.

The FICE-100 concentrates its processing power on returns from the lower portion of the radar’s transmitted vertical beam, then lowers the signal’s noise floor. The resulting imagery captures fine details that would otherwise be lost. Moreover, the system creates its composite imagery using as many as 100 radar sweeps (older sweeps are usurped by newer ones), a process that can take four minutes and 16 seconds to build out initially. Furuno’s X-band radars operate at 24 rpm.

While the system was designed for commercial ships, it can be fitted aboard expedition-grade yachts that have the belowdecks space to accommodate the X-band radar’s dedicated display and the FICE-100. The system’s digital-video-cable outputs allow users to look at navigational radar imagery on a networked Furuno multifunction display and at ice-detecting imagery on the dedicated display.

Lars Thrane LT-3100S

VSAT antennas provide fast satellite communications, but they’re beholden to coverage maps that sometimes exclude the high latitudes. Global Maritime Distress and Safety System terminals provide a safety net via satellite by transmitting emergency signals—including the vessel’s name and location—to, and enabling two-way voice calls with, a terrestrially based Rescue Coordination Center.

Lars Thrane’s LT-3100S terminal (call for pricing) operates on Iridium’s network of 66 cross-linked low-Earth-orbit satellites. The system leverages Iridium’s Short Burst Data messaging service to transmit small, low-bandwidth data packets while providing a dedicated voice channel. For mariners, this means global access to text messages, email, GRIB weather files, official maritime safety information, and emergency and nonemergency voice calls.

While the LT-3100S delivers significantly slower data-transfer rates than VSAT (read: no Zoom meetings), it’s fast enough to let users make affordable nonemergency voice calls and send and receive critical information. Better still, users can access itinerary-specific information from Iridium’s global partner network (things such as ice-pack reports from Iridium’s Russian partners) or—should troubles arise—transmit a distress signal and call an RCC.

Garmin InReach

For yachtsmen who want to send two-way emergency communications and nonemergency text communications, share a location, and get marine-weather updates—but who don’t want the complication of a GMDSS terminal—Garmin’s InReach satellite communicators ($350 to $650) could be the ticket. While InReach doesn’t offer the same capabilities as a GMDSS terminal, these pocket-size devices work globally via Iridium’s satellite network with an airtime subscription, and they allow users to post messages to social media platforms. The InReach devices also can be paired with smartphones, and friends and family can ping an InReach device for its location information.

Furuno SCX-20/SCX-21

Magnetic compasses have guided mariners for centuries, but as the devices approach the Earth’s magnetic poles, their magnetic declination increases, making them unusable. Alternatively, satellite compasses harness satellite signals to determine heading information.

Furuno’s NMEA 2000-certified SCX-20 and NMEA 0183-compatible SCX-21 (each $1,200) have four global-navigation-satellite-system antennas that allow the compasses to generate highly accurate heading, pitch, roll and heave data, even in heavy seas or when the compasses can only receive GNSS information from a single satellite (say, because of signal blockage from a mountain or an iceberg). These compasses can share the information with networked instruments and systems such as autopilots, chart plotters and radars using their NMEA 0183/2000 connectivity.

EPIRBs and PLBs with Return Link Service

Vessel-registered EPIRBs and individually registered personal locator beacons have saved countless lives, but historically, distressed mariners couldn’t be sure their emergency signals reached the rescuing authorities.

Next-generation devices allow COSPAS-SARSAT to send a Return Link Service confirmation to the beacon. While the Return Link Service is operational, EPIRBs and PLBs enabled with the technology aren’t yet widely available; yachtsmen can find them in the United Kingdom, France, Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Norway.

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It’s a common scenario on my home waters: A cargo ship heads south on Puget Sound, its bow aimed for the Port of Seattle’s always-hungry cranes, as a ferry steams west from Edmonds for Kingston and the Kitsap Peninsula. Compounding the situation is Seattle’s notorious rain and fog. While the ships are situationally aware thanks to robust commercial-grade radar and Class A AIS systems, the same isn’t always true of the recreational yachts with older radars. To the yachtsmen, the ship and ferry could appear as a single onscreen blob…provided that the radar can even penetrate the rain.

Fortunately, today’s high-powered solid-state radars can mitigate this potentially confusing situation.

Radar systems have long employed cavity magnetrons to transmit radio-frequency energy in extremely short, high-powered bursts. While effective, radar technology didn’t fundamentally change for recreational mariners until 2016, when multiple manufacturers released fully digital radars that replaced magnetrons with solid-state transistors. These radars broadcast lower-powered bursts of RF energy over significantly longer intervals using pulse-compression technology (think chirp sonar). Critically, solid-state transistors transmit highly predictable frequencies that enable Doppler processing, allowing these systems to color-code targets based on their threat levels (red means danger).

While these radars work well, next-generation solid-state radars are offering higher power and new software features.

Furuno’s first-generation solid-state radar—the radome-enclosed DRS4D-NXT—offered 25 watts of power and Target Analyzer, which delivered color-coded Doppler processing. Furuno’s newest offerings, the open-array DRS12ANXT ($7,430 to $8,275) and the DRS25ANXT ($9,430 to $10,275), offer 100 and 200 watts of power, respectively. Both radars are available with 41-inch, 4-foot or 6-foot arrays transmitting narrow wedges of RF energy in horizontal beam widths of 2.3, 1.9 and 1.35 degrees, respectively. Like many other Ethernet-enabled sensors, these radars pack their smarts and processing power into the unit’s pedestal and use networked Furuno NavNet TZtouch multi-function displays.

Garmin uses similar architecture and Ethernet connectivity with its radars. Garmin’s first-generation solid-state radars, the GMR Fantom 4 and GMR Fantom 6, employed 4-foot and 6-foot open arrays to deliver 40 watts of power and MotionScope Doppler processing. Additional GMR Fantom radars followed, and Garmin’s latest open-array radars, which are expected to hit the market by the end of this year, will each deliver 250 watts of power and beam widths of 1.8 and 1.25 degrees (depending on antenna).

The transmitted power of Furuno’s and Garmin’s solid-state radars is significantly less than the peak outputs of magnetron units, but Eric Kunz, Furuno’s senior product manager, says magnetron radars are rated for their peak power transmission, while solid-state radars are rated for their average power output.

“The [total] power transmission between solid-state and magnetron radars is the same, and they both use the same frequency spectrum,” Kunz says. “It’s a different way of creating transmissions, but the result is the same.”

Dave Dunn, Garmin’s director of sales and marketing for marine, agrees. “A 120-watt solid-state radar delivers the same total energy as a 15 kW magnetron-based radar,” Dunn says, explaining that the conversion between solid-state and magnetron radars is (roughly) a factor of 10 and change. “Solid-state radars get better information at greater distances because the RF energy stays on the target longer,” he adds.

Overall, Furuno’s and Garmin’s solid-state radars now deliver the same (or greater) overall power as each company’s highest-end, recreational-level magnetron radars, which offer 25 kW of peak power.

“The overall performance is equal to or better than magnetron-based radars,” Kunz says, adding that while cavity magnetrons need to be replaced after 3,000 to 5,000 hours of use, solid-state transistors typically outlast the radar pedestal’s motor drives.

Both experts also say that narrower beam widths enable higher-resolution imagery.

“I use the analogy of a wide-tip Sharpie marker,” Dunn says. “You can’t draw the picture you can with a narrow-tipped Sharpie.” In radar parlance, this means that beam width is the difference between having a general idea about targets and having a specific picture.

Kunz agrees, adding that target separation is improved: “We’re taking energy and squeezing it into a narrower area. This improves onscreen resolution and puts more-effective radiated power onto the target.”

Solid-state transistors open the door to advanced digital-signal processing, enabling Doppler processing and other features. For example, Furuno’s DRS12ANXT and DRS25ANXT radars are equipped with Furuno’s RezBoost, which can digitally decrease beam width to just 0.7 degrees; Bird Mode, which helps anglers spot birds using the radar’s gain function; and Rain Mode, which helps mariners peer into squalls.

“Signal processing can discern rain reflections from hard-target reflections,” Kunz says. “Boaters can see rain, but it doesn’t obscure targets.”

Additionally, Furuno radars have an automatic radar plotting aid that acquires and tracks an unlimited number of potentially dangerous targets.

Garmin’s newest GMR Fantom radars will be equipped with MotionScope Doppler processing and proprietary features such as scan-to-scan averaging and advanced mini-automatic radar plotting aid. Scan-to-scan averaging compares each frame of radar data with its previous radar returns to eliminate intermittent noise and clutter—say, when tracking fast-moving targets, detecting distant shorelines or searching for fish-finding birds—while advanced MARPA automatically acquires and tracks up to 10 targets sans any user input.

Another noteworthy point is that while magnetron radars have “main bang” blind spots (such as 65 feet for a 25 kW radar), solid-state radars can detect targets as close as 20 feet. Moreover, the radars discussed in this article have a 96-nautical-mile range; however, their long-range performance is limited by how far above the waterline the radar array is physically mounted. The long-range features are likely best used to detect weather systems and birds rather than distant vessels.

So, if you’ve been considering a new radar but have been waiting for the technology to mature, now could be the time to make it happen. As for yachtsmen cruising Puget Sound’s challenging waters, today’s high-power solid-state radars have no trouble color-coding and distinguishing between cargo ships and ferries at ranges that were previously the province of commercial- or military-grade hardware.

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Oscar is an automated monitoring system whose “eyes” are thermal and color cameras that feed information to a “brain” powered by artificial intelligence. The system was developed in cooperation with offshore-racing teams, and is being marketed for use aboard everything from day cruisers to superyachts.

The system detects floating objects to reduce the risk of a collision. “Non-signaled crafts, sleeping whales, wooden logs, containers and debris or other floating objects are detected, which neither the crew nor the radar or sonar system will detect,” according to the company. “Owners, skippers and crews benefit from increased safety as well as more comfort and peace of mind during navigation, especially at night.”

The developers say the goal for the Oscar system is to connect it to a boat’s autopilot, to automatically change the boat’s trajectory to avoid a collision risk.

Can Oscar’s data be tied into a multifunction screen? Yes. The Oscar Advanced Series also can be integrated with a boat’s communications bus.

Take the next step: Go to oscar-system.com

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FLIR has unveiled a new series of navigation displays called Raymarine Element S, promising all-weather performance, best-in-class speed and straightforward operation for yacht owners who want GPS navigation without sophisticated sonar.

Element S is available in 7-, 9-, and 12-inch models. There’s a 64-bit quad-core processor for speed, a built-in 10Hz GPS sensor, and support for charts from Raymarine’s LightHouseTM NC2, Navionics and C-Map.

Element S can be purchased with an optional Raymarine Quantum wireless chirp radar or an AIS receiver. There is NMEA 2000 connectivity for autopilot and VHF DSC integration, along with the display of sailing instruments, engine data and fuel tank level information. Element S allows storage of up to 5,000 waypoints in 200 groups, plus 50 routes and 15 tracks.

When will Element S be available? Raymarine dealers reportedly had it starting in mid-June, at a suggested retail price of $449.

Learn more about Element S: raymarine.com

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