Electronic Chart Systems and ECDIS - Essay Example

Supervisor: Institute of Marine Studies Electronic Chart Systems and ECDIS Electronic Chart Systems have been available over 10 years. An increasing number of companies are now using them. The standard for complete elimination of paper navigation charts is the one defined by SOLAS convention and generally known as Electronic Chart Display Information System (ECDIS). This article summarises the advantages of the ECDIS. One of the products which is available on the market is the Navmaster from PC Maritime. This product is evaluated based on a set of criteria and recommendations for further improvement of the product are offered. 2 Introduction Before a ship embarks on a voyage it is required under the SOLAS convention to carry adequate and up-to-date nautical charts and publications. Nautical charts are special purpose maps issued by IMO/IHO that are used for navigation. They show "depths, nature of bottom, elevations, configuration and characteristics of coast, dangers and aids to navigation" (Stavanger, 2004)1. Developments in technology have made it possible for electronic charts to be used. Due to stringent requirements for being up-to-date and complete, IMO/SOLAS have defined an electronic chart that can be acceptable to totally replace the paper charts. This type of chart is called an Electronic Chart Display Information System (ECDIS). Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) means a navigation information system which, with adequate back up arrangements, can be accepted as complying with the up-to-date chart required by regulation V/19 & V/27 of the 1974 SOLAS Convention. (Stavanger, 2004)2. Amongst some of the requirements of this standard is the availability of a backup system and that the hardware used be tested and certified to meet navigation standards. Charts come in two forms; vector Electronic Navigation Chart (ENC) and Raster Navigation Chart (RNC). The vector chart consists of a database which can be manipulated to display a chart. The raster chart is simply the paper chart which has been scanned and digitised. It closely resembles the paper chart but is limited in terms of how data can be manipulated. The standard for ECDIS is based on ENC but lately the RNC has also been included and referred to as RCDIS. The raster system is not considered to be comprehensive enough and still demands that paper charts be carried. It took some time before any official ECDIS systems were available. Companies, realising the advantage of electronic charts, started using non-certified equipment which is called the electronic chart system. Even certfied ECDIS systems operate in that mode is limted because ENCs availability is limited. 3 User Requirements for ECDIS Users of ECDIS are very clear about why they need to move from paper charts to electronic charts. They also have a clear idea of a system that meets their requiremets in this regard. The reason an ECDIS is required are: To relieve burden of paper charts that need storage and are cumbersome to use. Paper charts wear out while ENC/RNC do not wear out. A complete set of paper charts can amount to about 3000 maps (Edmonds3, 2002). These can be reduced to just 11 CDs. ECDIS offer a better means of evaluating vessel's track against planned route. It is therefore easy to notice drift from route compared to paper and corrective action can be taken without further delay. Integration of navigation monitoring with sensors on board vessels gives a clearer picture of the surrounding environment in one picture. The visibility to other craft in close proximity and recording of their tracks makes it easy to spot possible collisions in advance. Route planning is easy with ENCs and routes can be stored for re-use. Routes can be standardised by the companies can setting their own rules that minimise risk to the vessel thereby lowering overall risk. Shell UK Ltd decided that routes should not depend on whether the ship is in ballast or not and have formulated a rule that "[l]oaded and ballast passages would be subject to identical criteria" (Mead, 1999).4 Clear recording of a vessel's complete voyage can help in resolving disputes in cases of collision. Sometimes if a Master is suspected of misconduct the recorded voyage can be reviewed and it should clearly point out any major unexplained deviations. This gives managers a greater level of visibility and control on the conduct of their crew while at sea. Update of ENCs/RNCs is quite easy and therefore the risk of wrong updates or complete neglect of chart update is minimised. The notes made by one vessel in using a certain route become available to the whole fleet. The accumulated wisdom of the company increases and is leveraged throughout the whole fleet. It is easy to remotely load charts onto a vessel in the event of unexpected change of route. This gives flexibility in terms of despatching vessels and eliminates cases where a vessel may be forced to sail without necessary charts endangering other vessels at sea (Edmonds5, 2002). 4 Criteria for evaluating ECDIS Operators of shipping vessels are aware of the hazards of introducing this technology in their fleets. The level of computer knowledge among navigators is generally not that high. The following criteria will be used to evaluate an ECDIS. i. It is important that an ECDIS system should be user friendly; with little or no clutter. When you are dealing with people who have distrust and fear of technology it is important to ensure that the conversion is not traumatic. Any easy to use system will gain their confidence faster and training will be highly effective. ii. It should not be easy to delete vital data. Primary ENC/RNC database should be in a read-only medium such as ROM discs. It is often said no technology is fool-proof because fools are so ingenuous. Accidental modification or outright desruction of chart information should be impossible. That is why the info should reside in unwriteable disks. The logging information of a vessel's passage should not be modifiable or erasable except by someone with higher password priviledges than the crew. iii. Interface for entering of chart amendments, updates or any other comments should be intuitive and closely ressemble the current paper-based form. This should enable faster acceptance of the system by the crew. Edmonds6 (2002) confirms that there is preferance among sailors for raster charts since they closely ressembe paper charts. iv. The system should be flexible enough to operate in multiple modes i.e. both ENC and RNC charts should be used depending on availability. The transition period will be very long because there are many areas that will need to be surveyed to produce ENCs and in many cases governents do not have the money to commission such surveys. The raster charts are still far much better than paper charts. v. It should conform to Integrated Bridge model by allowing other systems and sensors to be connected and information so obtained superimposed on the chart display. vi. Remote loading of charts either by activating a chart that is already resident in media or downloding by modem or a telecomunications link is desirable (Edmond7, 2002). This should aid sudden change in schedule when a ship has to pass through unanticipated areas. This can happen due to emergency, hostilities or just customer demands. vii. Usage of the system should be password protected with passwords having different privildges. This should ensure that any amendments are done by authorised personel and an audit trail should be kept. Super passwords should always be given to someone outside the vessel to ensure that no attempts are ever made to tamper with logged information. In fact when suitable bandwidth becomes available it may be a good idea to send daily log dumps to a central data storage site. viii. Remote software upgrade and diagnostic should be possible to enable any glitches in software to be fixed while vessels is still out at sea. ix. Automatic logging of voyage data:- this data can be useful in soving disputes and analysing of specific events. Booker (2002b) states that one of the reasons the Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) was needed was for their "Masters' protection against unfounded allegations of speeding, imprudent navigation etc." 5 PC Maritime's Navmaster Navmaster is an ECDIS certified system developed by PC Maritime. This system will be evaluated in terms of criteria listed above. PC Maritime claims the Navmaster as a leading ECDIS product with an impressive array of feauters. The Navmaster brochure lists the following key features: Real-time Route monitoring Route planning ARPA, GPS and (U) AIS integration Data logging Integration of tidal currents information 5.1 Evaluation of Navmaster The evaluation is based on criteria listed in section 4 above. 1 Ease of use: - Navmaster is easy to use. It is a menu-driven system based on Windows interface. Other users in shipping community have given it high rating in this regard. Euroship Services (Booker, 2002a)8 justifies their selection of Navmaster on the grounds that "it is a good product with all the functions they needed with a simple to use menu system." The screen shot shown below is taken from the Navmaster brochure. 2 The chart data resides in CDs which are updated from time to time. User data cannot be written into these CDs. 3 Horton9 (2002), a Master at FT Everard & Sons cites "[e]ase of chart corrections" as one of the features he likes about the Navmaster. 4 Navmaster can operate on ENC or RNC. 5 Navmaster connects to sensors such as the ARPA, GPS and AIS. 6 Charts can be updated regularly with an Update CD. 7 The password policy conforms to normal Windows practice. 8 Troubleshooting on this software can be done remotely. 9 Using Voyage Data Recording (VDR) feature all voyage data can be recorded and be replayed to analyse an incident. In general the Navmaster is a good product. I liked the feature of adding video images to provide further pilotage information. Mead10 (1999) gives the following example by Navitrom11 Ltd a company that specialises in providing video footage for addition into Navmaster. These features provide powerful aids for navigation. 6 Suggested Improvements a. The password model should be improved allowing different levels of access with different permissions. This enables some simple tasks to be delegated to junior officers who will only have privileges to add data only relevant to their tasks. b. Another area that needs improvement is for Navmaster to incorporate automatic chart update using Navtex. c. Weather information should be used to create chart displays that show expected amount of waves. d. I would also like to suggest the use of touch-screens. Touch-screens are easier to use and master. e. With ubiquity of internet it should be possible to download new charts or corrections over the internet. Also this should open a way for important data to be dumped at a central data depository at least once a day during off-peak time. This will further secure information and even if a vessel is lost information remains and may be used for investigating the loss of the vessel among other things. 7 Conclusion The development of ECDIS systems is ushering a revolution in the navigation world. ECDISs improve operational effectiveness of vessels by offloading from crew tedious and time-consuming tasks of planning routes and monitoring tracks. The electronic chart systems and ESDIS enable integration of information from other sources such as radar, AIS, etc. to give a comprehensive picture of a vessel and its surroundings. All the information of a vessels voyage can be logged enabling the voyage to be reviewed. In cases of disputes about incidents such as collisions this information will prove invaluable. Navmaster as an ECDIS system is well designed much like by its users. References Booker, I. (2002a) ECDIS: The Ship Owner's Considerations for Implementation. In: Communications and IT in Shipping, London, 21 March 2002. Euroship Services Ltd. Booker, I. (2002b) Case Study: Company: EuroShip Services. Investing in Navmaster's Voyage Data Recording (VDR). [Online]. Available: http://www.pcmaritime.co.uk/comm/casestudies/casepdfs/EuroShipVDR.pdf [Accessed on 3 January 2006] Edmonds, D. (2003) Feedback from users of electronic chart technology [Online]. Available: http://www.pcmaritime.co.uk/comm/library/FeedbackfromusersofElChtTech.pdf [Accessed 28 December 2005]. Horton, G. (2002.) Case Study: Company: FT Everard & Sons. Navmaster for real-time navigation in close waters.[Online]. Available: http://www.pcmaritime.co.uk/comm/casestudies/casepdfs/FTEverardAllurity.pdf. [Accessed 30 December 2005]. Mead, S. (1999.) Passage Planning made efficient and cost-effective [Online]. Safe, Efficient Navigation using Electronic Charts conference, Rotterdam, 12-14 April 1999. Available: http://www.pcmaritime.co.uk/comm/library/PassagePlanningMadeEfficient.pdf. [Accessed on 30 December 2005]. PC Maritime (n.d.) Navmaster ECDIS brochure [online]. Available: http://www.pcmaritime.co.uk/comm/products/charting/navmasterecdisbrochure.pdf [Accessed on 29 December 2005]. Stavanger, P. (2004) Facts about charts and carriage requirements [online]. IC-ENC Working Group on Information. 1st Edition pp.5, 7. Available: http://www.ic-enc.org/downloads/other/Carriage_Requirements_v1.pdf [Accessed on 29 December 2005]. Bibliography Aeoliki Marine (n.d.) Navmaster Professional ECDIS brochure [Online]. Available: http://www.aeoliki.co.uk/navmaster.pdf [Accessed on 1 January 2006] PC Maritime (2003) The current status of ECDIS. Transas (n.d.) ECDIS for Large Ships brochure [Online]. Available: http://www.transas.com/onboard/ns3000/NS-3000_e.pdf [Accessed on 30 December 2005] XXXXXX Chapter 14 ECDIS and Integrated Bridge Read More