Vessel Tracking

Vessel Kinematic Fingerprinting

Comparing observed acceleration, turn rate, and motion dynamics against hull-class and load-state physical baselines.

Vessel kinematic fingerprinting tests whether a broadcast AIS trajectory obeys the physical motion limits of the ship claiming to transmit it. A laden Capesize bulk carrier or very large crude carrier has high rotational inertia and slow speed transitions that cannot match the tight turn radii or rapid acceleration of a tug, patrol boat, or synthetic software track. Overwatch builds empirical fingerprint libraries grouped by vessel class and displacement ratio, fitting Ornstein-Uhlenbeck mean-reverting speed and turn-rate parameters alongside interacting multiple-model trajectory residuals across constant-velocity and constant-turn-rate motion models. Tracks that deviate sharply from their hull-class median-absolute-deviation envelope raise a kinematic anomaly score for spoofing and identity-borrowing review.

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