MARTAC has integrated SEA.AI machine vision on its unmanned surface vessels. The system classifies contacts in real time at the sensor, so USVs understand their surroundings without anyone watching a video feed.
SEA.AI press release
MARTAC has integrated SEA.AI maritime machine vision on its unmanned surface vessels (USVs). The system classifies vessels and objects in real time at the sensor, so a USV operating far beyond its operators’ line of sight gets usable situational awareness without anyone watching a video feed.
MARTAC, a Florida-based manufacturer of high-performance autonomous maritime platforms, selected SEA.AI as part of its sensor integration architecture. The integration covers ISR, security, and patrol mission profiles. SEA.AI announced the partnership with MARTAC on 13 October 2026.
Why radar and AIS leave a gap in maritime domain awareness
Radar resolves a contact’s position and radar cross-section, but not what the contact is. AIS is voluntary, routinely manipulated, and missing on any platform that chooses not to broadcast.
In today’s grey zone environment, these limits carry operational weight because threats are designed to exploit them: dark vessels, spoofed identities, and fast-attack craft that look like surrounding traffic until the moment they act.
How SEA.AI turns a camera feed into actionable information
Electro-optical and thermal cameras have long been part of maritime sensing. The weak point is what happens after the image is captured. On an autonomous platform, a conventional camera produces video, and that video is useless without an analyst watching it continuously.
SEA.AI runs AI inference at the sensor level. Its electro-optical and thermal system classifies each contact in real time and outputs vessel or object type, heading, and proximity as actionable information, with no human review of imagery.
For a USV beyond visual range of its operators, this separates genuine situational awareness from a data stream nobody has time to interpret.
Built for missions beyond the operator’s reach
In May 2026, MARTAC’s T38 Devil Ray completed a record 8-day fully autonomous mission off the coast of California. It navigated multiple real surface contacts in open-ocean conditions, without crew or escort, more than 400 nautical miles from shore.
At that range and in Sea State 5 conditions, no remote operator can review imagery in time. The vessel has to detect and understand its environment on its own, and that is the capability SEA.AI brings.
“We built SEA.AI in 2018 around a conviction that the camera alone was never going to be enough at sea. The intelligence had to be in the system, not in a person watching a screen somewhere. That requirement has only become more urgent as autonomous platforms move from trials into operational deployment.”
Marcus Warrelmann, CEO, SEA.AI
“Operators have sensors, platforms, and more data than their teams can process. What we add to a MARTAC vessel is not another feed to monitor, it is a system that watches, understands, and reports. This partnership with MARTAC puts that capability where it matters: on proven platforms, in real missions.”
Diogo ArredaManaging Director US, SEA.AI
“Our platforms are built to carry whatever sensors the mission requires, and we evaluate every integration on one basis: does it make the vessel more operationally capable? SEA.AI’s machine vision, that classifies contacts autonomously and in real time, is a direct solution for closing a real gap. That is why it is on our platforms.”
Jim HarveyChief Technology Officer, MARTAC
SEA.AI machine vision, proven at sea since 2018
SEA.AI pioneered maritime machine vision in 2018. Its systems combine optical and thermal sensors with artificial intelligence to detect what radar and AIS often miss: persons overboard, marine mammals, unlit vessels, small craft, containers, semi-submerged logs, and other floating hazards, day and night, in real time.
The technology is built on more than eight years of real-world data gathered at sea. More than 1,300 systems are in service worldwide, across recreational, commercial, and security operations, at sea and from fixed installations.
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