Maritime

Maritime AI annotation labels imagery and sensor data from marine environments so that AI systems can support vessel detection and tracking, port automation, coastal surveillance, environmental monitoring, and maritime safety. It covers annotation of vessels (ships, boats, tankers, ferries, small craft) across satellite, aerial, and port camera imagery, port and harbor activity annotation (cranes, containers, trucks, loading zones, vessel berths), offshore infrastructure inspection (oil rigs, wind turbines, platforms), marine environment segmentation (water, waves, coastlines, docks), and vessel route and behavior tracking. Maritime annotation must handle challenging visual conditions: reflective water surfaces, wave clutter, spray, fog, and the full scale range from small fishing boats to large tankers.

Vessel detection from satellite imagery is technically demanding because vessels appear at dramatically different sizes depending on satellite resolution, vessel type, and distance from the imaging system. A supertanker may occupy hundreds of pixels in high-resolution commercial satellite imagery but only a few pixels in medium-resolution imagery. Small vessels (fishing boats, recreational craft, rigid inflatables) may be smaller than the resolution limit of many satellite systems. Dark vessel detection (vessels that disable their AIS transponders) requires annotation of vessels that may be partially obscured by sea state, viewed at unfavorable aspects, or exhibiting unusual thermal signatures in EO/IR imagery. These challenges require annotators with maritime remote sensing knowledge.

Port and harbor automation annotation labels the physical elements and activities that port AI systems must understand to support vessel traffic management, equipment automation, and logistics coordination. This includes vessel berth occupancy (which berths are occupied and by what vessel type), crane and equipment status (working, idle, maintenance), container and cargo unit detection and classification, truck and vehicle movement in port landside areas, worker presence in automated equipment operating zones, and navigation channel and fairway conditions from port monitoring cameras. Port annotation must handle the specific challenges of port environments: night operations under artificial lighting, fog and weather, and the simultaneous presence of vessels, cranes, trucks, and workers at different scales.

Maritime domain awareness annotation labels the full picture of maritime traffic, activity, and anomalies across a sea area from satellite, aerial, and sensor data. This includes vessel detection and classification, AIS track correlation (linking detected vessels to AIS transponder data where available), behavioral anomaly detection (vessels drifting off course, suspicious rendezvous patterns, illegal fishing behavior), and environmental monitoring (oil spills, pollution events, illegal dumping). For defense and coast guard applications, dark vessel detection (vessels without AIS) and behavioral pattern analysis are particularly important. Maritime domain awareness annotation for defense programs requires EU-sovereign workflows and appropriately vetted annotators.

GDPR applies to maritime annotation that captures identifiable individuals in vessels, on port facilities, or in coastal areas. Port security imagery capturing workers, truck drivers, or vessel crew is personal data under GDPR. Satellite imagery of port facilities at sufficient resolution to identify individuals triggers GDPR obligations. For maritime AI training data, standard practice requires anonymization of identifiable individuals where feasible, documented legal basis for processing port and coastal surveillance data, and data processing agreements with annotation service providers. For defense maritime programs, sovereignty considerations go beyond GDPR.

DataVLab provides maritime annotation for vessel detection and classification (satellite, aerial, port camera), port and harbor activity monitoring, offshore infrastructure inspection, marine environment segmentation, vessel route and behavior tracking, and maritime domain awareness. We work with port operators, maritime logistics companies, coast guard and naval programs, offshore energy operators, and maritime AI technology providers. EU-based annotation is available for European maritime programs with GDPR compliance or sovereignty requirements, including defense maritime applications.