Increasing Quality of Maritime Communication through Intelligent Speech Recognition and Radio Direction Finding

Abstract

In the area of maritime rescue, the factor time in the event of an accident and the associated conduct of rescue operations is of fundamental importance. A difference in the arrival of the rescue forces from a few minutes can decide in the worst case between death or complete recovery of an injured person. First, this paper briefly addresses peculiarities of ship accidents and examines in particular communication-enhancing measures to avoid them. In this context, current developments in the field of automatic speech recognition by artificial intelligence are presented on the basis of the research project ARTUS - Automated Transcription of Maritime VHF Radio Communication for SAR Mission Coordination. Based on the technology used in the project to transcribe the content of maritime radio messages and to locate as well as identify vessels, its potential challenges and safety benefits are analyzed.