AI at Sea, Year Six: Performance Evaluation, Failures,and Insights from the Operational Meta-Analysis of SatShipAI, a Sensor-Fused Maritime Surveillance Platform

Nasios, Ioannis; Vogklis, Konstantinos

doi:10.3390/electronics14183648

This is an early access version, the complete PDF, HTML, and XML versions will be available soon.

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

AI at Sea, Year Six: Performance Evaluation, Failures,and Insights from the Operational Meta-Analysis of SatShipAI, a Sensor-Fused Maritime Surveillance Platform

by

Ioannis Nasios

^1,†

and

Konstantinos Vogklis

^2,*,†

¹

Nodalpoint Systems, Pireos 205, 118 53 Athens, Greece

²

Department of Tourism, Ionian University, 49100 Corfu, Greece

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Electronics 2025, 14(18), 3648; https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14183648

Submission received: 22 July 2025 / Revised: 2 September 2025 / Accepted: 5 September 2025 / Published: 15 September 2025

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Engineering Applications)

Download Versions Notes

Abstract

Six years after its deployment, SatShipAI, an operational platform combining AI models with Sentinel-1 SAR imagery and AIS data, has provided robust maritime surveillance around Denmark. A meta-analysis of archived outputs, logs, and manual reviews shows stable vessel detection and classification performance over time, including successful cross-sensor application to X-band SAR data without retraining. Key operational challenges included orbit file delays, nearshore detection limits, and emerging infrastructure such as wind farms. The platform proved particularly valuable for detecting offshore “dark” vessels beyond AIS coverage, informing maritime security, traffic management, and emergency response. These findings demonstrate the feasibility, resilience, and adaptability of long-term AI–geospatial systems, offering practical guidance for future autonomous monitoring infrastructure.

Keywords: artificial intelligence; maritime surveillance; satellite-based sensors; ship detection; SatShipAI; satellite imagery; synthetic aperture radar (SAR); automatic identification system (AIS); sensor fusion

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Nasios, I.; Vogklis, K. AI at Sea, Year Six: Performance Evaluation, Failures,and Insights from the Operational Meta-Analysis of SatShipAI, a Sensor-Fused Maritime Surveillance Platform. Electronics 2025, 14, 3648. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14183648

AMA Style

Nasios I, Vogklis K. AI at Sea, Year Six: Performance Evaluation, Failures,and Insights from the Operational Meta-Analysis of SatShipAI, a Sensor-Fused Maritime Surveillance Platform. Electronics. 2025; 14(18):3648. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14183648

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nasios, Ioannis, and Konstantinos Vogklis. 2025. "AI at Sea, Year Six: Performance Evaluation, Failures,and Insights from the Operational Meta-Analysis of SatShipAI, a Sensor-Fused Maritime Surveillance Platform" Electronics 14, no. 18: 3648. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14183648

APA Style

Nasios, I., & Vogklis, K. (2025). AI at Sea, Year Six: Performance Evaluation, Failures,and Insights from the Operational Meta-Analysis of SatShipAI, a Sensor-Fused Maritime Surveillance Platform. Electronics, 14(18), 3648. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics14183648

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Menu

AI at Sea, Year Six: Performance Evaluation, Failures,and Insights from the Operational Meta-Analysis of SatShipAI, a Sensor-Fused Maritime Surveillance Platform

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI