German company looks for research partners in the field of Automatic Identification Systems (AIS)

The company was founded in 1996 and successfully performs in the fields of web design, database technology and the design of mobile software. Its headquarters are located at the Baltic Sea but has paying customers in more than 100 countries. Real-time AIS ship tracking and a huge historical AIS databank enable the monitoring of approximately 4,500 ports with information about more than half a million vessels. If partners decided to collaborate, they would be privileged using the stand alone characteristics of this technology. The company combines the reliability of AIS tracking with the reach of satellite-based tracking in a comprehensive fleet monitoring solution with powerful reporting tools and flexible IT integration options. As pioneers in the field of real-time AIS tracking of ships, the company has thousands of AIS base stations around the world. Information provided by these terrestrial stations is complimented by data received from AIS satellites’ partners. More than 450,000,000 AIS messages are received and stored daily. In order to complete its terrestrial network the company is looking for organizations (institutions and companies) which are located in Italy, France, Spain, Greece and Albania and are willing to get free AIS data for research activities. The collaboration partner receives the necessary equipment (AIS receiver hardware and antenna) free of charge and the collected data for its own research purposes. The antenna can be easily installed by the partner with the help of an instruction manual. After one year of use, the antenna or the hardware will be replaced, again at no cost to the partner. The aim is a long term partnership with mutual benefit for all parties. The gathered data are afterwards available for research purposes. AIS data are being applied in several fields and still open research fields. The company offers includes real-time and historical vessel positions, besides that an access to its own vessel database located in the EU. The product portfolio includes: - Vessel performance monitoring, - Determination of the condition of sea terminals, - Traffic area monitoring, - Alarm functions and comprehensive traffic flow analyses. The company seeks for partners who are interested in joint evaluation activities by testing different hardware in the context of AIS signal distribution in the frame of joint research projects. Therefore, a Partnership under research or technical cooperation agreement is desired.