See
A masthead camera, a thermal camera and X band radar watch the water around the vessel, day and night, in fog and in low sun.
Seeing ice at the edge.
Meridian Polar carries its own AI into the ice. Two NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin Industrial modules, rated to minus 40 °C, fuse masthead camera, thermal and radar feeds to detect sea ice, growlers and floes in real time. Only what matters leaves the ship: ice detections go out over Iridium from anywhere in the Arctic, and imagery and science data follow over broadband satellite when it is available. The same system is being built for research boats, workboats and uncrewed vessels that work in ice.
How it works
Decide
Two Jetson AGX Orin Industrial modules fuse the feeds and classify ice on board. A separate module runs a safety supervisor that refuses unsafe manoeuvres. Detections advise the crew; they never steer the boat in ice.
Share
Ice detections leave the ship as small data packets over Iridium, which reaches the whole Arctic. Imagery, clips and science data follow over broadband satellite when available, and flow into an open, shared picture of the ice for researchers and ice services.
From measurement to decision.
| We measure | Instrument | Used by |
|---|---|---|
| Ice and snow | Electromagnetic induction | Ice services |
| Ocean carbon | ISFET pH and underway pCO2 | Climate scientists |
| Marine life | Hydrophones and environmental DNA | Biologists |
| Space weather | Magnetometer and GNSS scintillation | Navigation teams |
Built for the cold
Every module is qualified in a cold chamber and runs in a heated enclosure with an automatic restart, because a cold start at minus 40 °C is where electronics fail first. Heading comes from dual antenna satellite positioning, since a magnetic compass is unreliable on Amundsen's Maud route.
Beyond one vessel
Ice radar today is built for icebreakers, and camera AI treats ice as one more object. Meridian Polar is building ice detection sized for smaller vessels: research boats, workboats, expedition tenders and uncrewed surface vessels.
Working on edge AI, sensing or polar data?
Write to Per Magne