Maritime AI and energy efficiency company DeepSea Technologies has been partnering with chemical and product tanker operator Ardmore Shipping to implement Pythia, its voyage optimisation tool, across Ardmore’s fleet – enabling AI-driven insights that will help the ship owner to meet the goals of its Energy Transition Plan (ETP) while driving business performance.
During the first year of the partnership, which involved a full-scale trial of the technology on Ardmore vessels, DeepSea and Ardmore collaborated to refine a series of algorithms powered by DeepSea’s AI-generated vessel behaviour models, coupled with Ardmore’s extensive historical data. This breakthrough allows an AI approach to be used within the context of tramp trade. Outcomes of this 12-month collaboration saw a promising decrease in fuel consumption and, in turn, emissions.
Ardmore’s ETP guides its approach to increasing efficiency through the trial and implementation of a range of readily available maritime technologies and fitting these together to achieve optimal performance of its fleet. To date, Ardmore has invested in fuel-efficient engines, advanced hull designs, and other technologies that optimise fuel consumption and reduce emissions. These technologies will now be complemented by DeepSea’s voyage optimisation services.
The optimisation of non-liner trade is challenging due to operational obstacles that include uncertain arrival times and frequently-changing destinations. With defined contracts, owners and operators of tramp vessels have historically faced little pressure to adopt technologies to optimise vessel performance. The growth of regulation to support efficiency improvements across the sector as part of shipping’s energy transition means owner-operators want better information and guidance to help reduce energy consumption and maintain efficient vessels.
Since its foundation, Ardmore has been one of the first movers in adopting new technologies and was one of the first tanker companies to harness high-frequency data as part of the operation of its vessels. This partnership sees the company expanding this approach, with the introduction of AI-driven insights that are dynamically updated based on the high-frequency data streamed from on-board sensors.
Ha Eun Ruppelt, Ardmore Shipping Commercial Project Manager, said: “Through this collaboration with DeepSea, we’re further upgrading and future-proofing our fleet for operation in today’s dynamic tanker market, aligning with our commitment to innovation and sustainability. This evolution aims to further optimise fleet performance, resulting in smarter decision-making. We look forward to developing this partnership further, and exploring how to extract the most value in terms of emissions and fuel savings through the use of DeepSea’s technologies.”
Konstantinos Kyriakopoulos, DeepSea CEO, said: “We’re very excited to be expanding our collaboration with a visionary leader in the tanker space, known for its focus on quality and its successful adoption of new technologies. Together with the Ardmore team, we’ve shown how AI-powered voyage optimisation can be adapted to address the unique challenges of the tanker sector, leveraging hyper-accurate modelling of each vessel’s unique fuel profile to deliver demonstrable reductions in emissions and optimally balance fuel cost and revenue opportunity to increase commercial efficiency.”
Image: ‘Ardmore Seahawk’ is one of Ardmore Shipping’s fleet, on which DeepSea Technologies is implementing Pythia, its voyage optimisation tool (source: DeepSea Technologies / Blue Comms)
