Using Agents to Improve International Maritime Transport Security.

The recent surge in maritime piracy presents a serious threat to the international maritime transport system. Over the past few years, insurance rates have increased more than tenfold for vessels transiting known pirate waters, and the overall costs of piracy in the Pacific and Indian Oceans alone were estimated at US$15 billion in 2006 and continue to rise. To combat this problem, the authors have developed a testbed for prototyping and evaluating agent-based techniques for understanding, detecting, anticipating, and eventually suppressing piracy and possibly other categories of maritime crime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]