MOBtronic Man Overboard Solution Wins Prestigious Safety at Sea Award

The Safety at Sea Awards were held last night (18/10/18) at Le Meridien Piccadilly Hotel, Mayfair London.

MARSS won the category, Best Safety Product of the Year (Hardware and Software Package) with their automated Man Overboard Detection and Tracking System - MOBtronic.

MOBtronic is a multi-sensor detection and tracking system that through multiple radars simultaneously monitors the ship wall ensuring falling objects are detected and tracked. MOBtronic protects the lives and safety of passengers and crew by creating a virtual shield around a vessel which automatically detects and classifies a man-overboard event and supports rescue and recovery efforts.

The system consists of small marinised pods that are strategically positioned to cover the volume around an entire vessel or platform. The MOBtronic pods feature a patented configuration of sensors that reliably notify crew when a man-overboard event occurs, minimize false alarms and operate even in harshest environments.

Using a combination of multi-sensor data and MARSS proprietary software, MOBtronic differentiates a genuine event from false positive detections caused by birds, breaking waves and other objects. MOBtronic does not require wearable tags, which could be removed, either intentionally or unintentionally. Alerts, live tracking and video playback are displayed on the intuitive MOBtronic user interface to aid crew in managing SAR operations and to analyse a MOB incident.

MOBtronic evolved from a European Union research program with over 7,000 test jumps, extensive sea trials and industry participation over the last 5 years. Having been trialed in diverse marine environments, MOBtronic has a proven probability of detection in excess of 95% and false alarm rates of less than 3 a week.

Immediate notification of man-overboard events is a critical component to ensure a timely rescue and to minimise the resource required to identify, track and recover the target from the water, maximising the chances of survival. MOBtronic is an innovative solution that detects, classifies and integrates with the ships systems to plot the event point and estimated track of the target.

MARSS have won a contract for the installation of MOBtronic onboard the latest Royal New Zealand Navy auxiliary vessel for operation in the Southern Ocean.

The award was accepted by Rob Balloch, Senior VP Sales at MARSS who said, “It is a great honour for MARSS to be recognized in this way. We work hard to ensure that MOBtronic is the very best product it can be, because lives are at stake and we take that responsibility very seriously. So, to be awarded the Safety at Sea, Best Safety Product of the Year, over such tough competition in this group is simply wonderful for us, and a testimony to the dedication and ingenuity of our team and all the other organisations that have contributed to the success of bringing this important product from the drawing board to saving lives at sea.”