At Euronaval (4-7 November 2024), Thales is showcasing recent advances in artificial intelligence with a presentation of its Pathmaster solution, which uses AI to detect and classify maritime mines with unprecedented precision for neutralisation by autonomous underwater vehicles.
Maritime mines at any depth represent a low-cost, persistent threat to naval operations and compromise the safety of maritime shipping, which accounts for 90% of international trade. According to the latest estimates, several million maritime mines are now deployed worldwide, with particularly high densities in areas affected by major military conflicts or geopolitical tensions. As well as damaging marine ecosystems, they create a significant financial burden because of the need to re-route ships and protect shipping lanes.
"With the proliferation and growing sophistication of maritime mines, advanced data gathering and analytics capabilities have an increasingly important role to play in countering this global threat. Autonomous mine countermeasures systems implementing artificial intelligence algorithms are now capable of processing data more efficiently and at lower cost than ever before while protecting human operators from the dangers of maritime minefields. Thales's trusted AI augments the capabilities of its Pathmaster solution to significantly improve sonar data analysis and provide operators with valuable decision support during critical phases of their missions," said Gwendoline Blandin-Roger, Vice President, Underwater Systems, Thales.
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Download free sample pages More informationPathmaster uses AI to support the key tasks of mine detection and classification, while the Mi-Map application enables operators to analyse high-resolution sonar data covering hundreds of square kilometres, either in real time or after the mission, with greater efficiency than ever before. AI algorithms analyse sonar images to detect and classify potential mines much more accurately and over significantly larger areas. Thales's Mi-Map solution is up to four times faster than conventional sonar data analysis tools as well as reducing the cognitive load on operators.
Thales's AI-augmented Pathmaster system has been proven in comprehensive sea trials conducted for the Franco-British MMCM programme and was certified in 2024 to the International Maritime Organization's degree 3 autonomy by the Naval Authority Group within the UK MoD's Defence, Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation.
