Biofouling Monitoring
Continuous hull and propeller condition monitoring from your existing vessel data. Know exactly when a cleaning is economically justified — not when the calendar says so.
From sensor data to maintenance decision.
Shaft power, GPS speed, draft, wind, IMU — existing data streams
Physics-based speed model — the speed a clean hull should make in these conditions
How far actual speed sits below a clean hull — zero when the hull is clean
Hull condition with a calibrated confidence range — not just a single number
Multiple checks must agree — over 99% of single-sensor spikes are ignored
Clean now / Watch / Alert / Schedule — with expected savings and confidence
Four things no calendar can do.
Your vessel already has everything we need.
We connect to the 40 sensor channels your vessel already logs — shaft power, GPS speed, draft, wind, IMU motion, fuel telemetry. No new equipment. No dry-dock installation. No operational disruption. The moment you share a data feed, monitoring begins.
GPS Speed
Shaft Power
Wind Speed
Mean Draft
It knows weather from fouling — and hull from propeller.
Rough seas and heavy loading slow any vessel and burn extra fuel. Our physics model accounts for those effects first, then reads what is left as genuine fouling — and tells hull fouling apart from propeller fouling, because each leaves a different mark across speed and power.
Two independent fingerprints — lost speed and extra fuel burn — are read together. The physics model strips out what weather and loading explain, then attributes the remainder to the hull or the propeller. Both signals must point the same way before we act.
Updated every voyage.
Not every dry-dock.
Multiple independent signals watch your hull condition simultaneously. They must all agree before an alert is raised — so you act on evidence, not on noise.
A single noisy reading never triggers a cleaning call — only sustained agreement across independent checks does. You act on evidence, not noise.
Every recommendation comes with a confidence level.
Every recommendation includes a confidence range, not just a single number. In rough weather or unusual loading, the range widens — and we wait for clearer evidence before telling you to act.
Calendar maintenance wastes money every cycle.
Vessels run at heavy fouling penalty for months before the schedule permits cleaning. The schematic shows the real cost in fuel.
Calendar cleaning runs on a fixed interval — the hull sits at a 13–16% fuel penalty for over four months before anyone acts. Ocean AI cleans the moment the cost of waiting outweighs the cost of cleaning, removing the wasted-fuel zone entirely. After each clean the hull resets and fouling regrows (dashed blue line).
Both scenarios use the same vessel and fouling model. Calendar approach runs at heavy fouling (orange-red) for ~4 months before each cleaning. Ocean AI triggers at the economic threshold, keeping the hull in the green-yellow zone throughout. Same number of cleanings — less fuel waste.
This is what you receive.
A live condition estimate, a calibrated alert tier, and actionable metrics — updated continuously from your vessel's operational data.
Hull condition — extra fuel burn
confidence range [-0.38, -0.24] kn
Status
Recommend Cleaning
Fuel penalty
+8.0%
vs clean baseline
Annual loss
$145K
at $5K/day fuel
Payback
38 days
after cleaning
Confidence
High 92%
calibrated confidence
Four-tier maintenance framework.
We act only when the confidence range — not just the best guess — clears the threshold, so rough-weather noise never triggers a false cleaning call.
| Action | Trigger | Speed loss | Fuel penalty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watch | Alert score ≥ 1 | < 0.5% | < 1% |
| Alert | Speed loss ≥ 0.07 kn | ~0.5% | ~1.5% |
| Recommend Cleaning | Speed loss ≥ 0.28 kn or alert score = 3 | ~2% | ~4.3% |
| Schedule Drydock | Speed loss ≥ 0.70 kn | ~5% | ~10.7% |
Fouling severity reference
| Level | Fuel penalty | Speed loss |
|---|---|---|
| Light | 5% | −0.5 kn |
| Moderate | ~10% | −1.0 to −1.5 kn |
| Heavy | 20%+ | −2.0+ kn |
IMO 2023 Biofouling Guidelines; Schultz et al., Biofouling, 2011
Ready to monitor your fleet?
Get in touch to discuss data requirements, integration, and pricing.
Request a Demo