International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 3

Number 4

December 2009

385

1 INTRODUCTION

The River Information System (RIS) is a package of

solutions for the needs of inland shipping, which has

been worked upon for a dozen years by representa-

tives of most European countries. The underlying

foundation of this concept is harmonising the activi-

ties of all kinds of enterprises, institutions and other

users of inland waterway networks in Europe. It is

high time Poland too should join the group of coun-

tries involved in this undertaking. Directive

2005/44/WE of the European Parliament and Coun-

cil of Europe, along with respective regulations of

the Commission of European Communities

(414/2007 and 415/2007) oblige the member coun-

tries to introduce this type of system. At the same

time they specify requirements pertaining to its im-

plementation, pointing out among other things,

which services should be covered by it. Among them

are Traffic Information service and Traffic Man-

agement. According to assumptions, both should be

based on tracking and tracing of vessels conducting

navigation in inland waters.

Within the framework of European projects there

was called a Tracking and Tracing Expert Working

Group, whose work effected in guidelines providing

the basis for designing tracking systems in RIS

(Tracking and Tracing Expert Group, 2005). They

were subsequently accepted by practically all organ-

isations regulating RIS services in Europe.

The present article sets forth the subject matter

related to target tracking in RIS and the demands

made on it.

2 VESSEL TRACKING AND TRACING

Defining vessel tracking in RIS requires the taking

into consideration of a kind of semantic dualism,

ushered in by the European Law in force and its

translation into English, as the European documents

use the English words tracking and tracing, which in

both cases may be translated into Polish as śledzenie.

Therefore, in official translations two separate con-

cepts were introduced. And so, according to Regula-

tion of Commission of European Communities Nr

414/ 2007 13 March 2007 the following definitions

were introduced:

− Vessel tracking (Polish śledzenie) means the

function of maintaining status information of the

vessel, such as the current position and character-

istics, and — if needed — combined with infor-

mation on cargo and consignments.

− Vessel tracing (Polish namierzanie) means the re-

trieving of information concerning the wherea-

bouts of the vessel and — if needed — infor-

mation on cargo, consignments and equipment.

Both definitions partly overlap each other, and

their differentiation becomes more complete, when

the various applications are known for information

obtained in effect of tracking and tracing vessels.

The issue here is first of all division into static in-

formation, pertaining to characteristics of the vessel

or the voyage, and into dynamic information, per-

taining to the vessel’s current navigational situation.

Nevertheless, in almost all RIS-related studies, both

concepts are linked to each other, being two parts of

a conceptual whole.

Target Tracking in RIS

A. Stateczny & W. Kazimierski

Maritime University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland

ABSTRACT: The article treats of problems bound with the tracking of surface water targets in RIS systems.

A concept of RIS has been briefly presented, indicating the need for locating in them the tracking and tracing

of ships. The most popular sensors used for the purpose have been characterised, the most important relevant

documents have been presented and the requirements set for tracking systems have been described.

386

3 TARGET TRACKING REGULATING

DOCUMENTS IN RIS

The problem of tracking targets in inland waters ap-

peared automatically at the moment of introducing

supervision of barges and other river vessels. The

traditional technique applied for this purpose was

radar tracking backed up by various communication

technologies, starting from VHF up to cellular te-

lephony. The next step forward is including tracking

in the RIS system.

Since the emergence of the concept of harmo-

nised services for inland shipping in the scope of

RIS a number of documents have been prepared,

which are mainly the result of international pro-

grammes under the aegis of European Communities.

The main participants of those programmes were

countries and firms bound with shipping in west Eu-

rope’s largest rivers. At the same time, the prepara-

tion of RIS standards was the activity of Central

Commission for Navigation on the Rhine (CCNR),

and Permanent International Association of Naviga-

tion Congresses (PIANC). The subject matter of

target tracking has always been an essential part of

RIS services.

In 2000 the programme Inland Navigation De-

monstrator for River Information Services (IN-

DRIS) was completed, organised within the frame-

work of 4. PR of the Directorate-General for

Transport and Energy of the European Commission,

which is the first pan-European attempt at imple-

menting the idea of harmonised RIS services. Within

its scope there were conducted a few demonstrations

of RIS concept on the main inland routes of West

Europe. The possibility was indicated of making use

of techniques applied in marine VTS centres (Vessel

Traffic System), also for tracking inland traffic. It

was to be based on data obtained from shore radar,

but AIS was taken account of as a source of addi-

tional information about targets. (INDRIS, 2000)

Within the scope of 5PR two large RIS-related

programmes were started. The first of them was

ALSO DANUBE, which lasted from 2002 to 2003,

and the other was COMPRIS, a sort of continuation

of INDRIS, which lasted from 2000 to 2005. The

first was oriented to implementing new technologies

of improving shipping on the Danube, the other de-

veloped the concept of pan-European RIS within an

international consortium (more than 11 member

states). In both projects the significance of AIS was

stressed both for tracking and tracing targets. At the

same time, in COMPRIS programme the attention

was directed to the inaccuracies of radar tracking,

resulting both from its characteristic and from the

specificity of traffic in inland water areas, with fre-

quent manoeuvres, especially by course (COMPRIS,

2004). The importance of data fusion and infor-

mation was also stressed, acknowledging that radar

will be only one of the sensors within the tracking

system (COMPRIS, 2005).

Apart from programmes described, within the

scope of RIS European platform and with the sup-

port of Central Commission for Navigation on the

Rhine as also the Danube Commission, expert

groups were called with the objective of working out

standards and requirements related to RIS. One of

the groups handled problems of target tracking and

tracing. Its work was based on guidelines for RIS

systems worked out by PIANC and approved by

CCNR in 2004 (CCNR, 2004). It was pointed out in

the study that AIS-based tracking systems supple-

ment radar tracking, which remains the basic source

of information about vessel tracking. The experts,

without negating this fact, concentrated almost ex-

clusively on AIS development in two variants - In-

land AIS and AIS-IP. Their activity effected in

standards, worked out in 2005, concerning tracking

and tracing of vessels in inland shipping (Tracking

and Tracing Expert Group, 2005), which were fur-

ther adopted by CCNR (CCNR, 2006), and also in-

cluded in a resolution by European Economic Com-

mission at the UN (UNECE, 2007). They state that a

complex tracking system should be made up of vari-

ous types of sensors. The AIS system, however, is

indicated as the unquestionable leader. It may in a

way seem amusing that in the document it is said in

one place that radar should be the basis for the track-

ing system, followed by over 100 pages of consider-

ations pertaining to the AIS system. In this way, a

clear pro-AIS trend looms out among RIS designers,

on a scale surprisingly large in places. For example

the DoRIS system, which regulates navigation in the

Austrian part of the Danube is based exclusively on

AIS and does not avail itself of a radar station. The

question arises here about the safety and reliability

of Inland AIS.

In the writer’s opinion, two things determine the

popularity of AIS. In the first place, the high accura-

cy of dynamic information obtained concerning the

vessel’s movement (assuming the correct function-

ing of the system and the ship’s sensors; in the se-

cond place, the possibility of widening these data by

static information about the vessel’s dimensions,

cargo, port of destination etc. In neither respect does

radar stand comparison with AIS.

From 2003 parallel work went on on introducing

the DoRIS system of river services, covering the

Austrian part of the Danube. In this system, too, AIS

was indicated as the main source of information

concerning vessel tracking and tracing.

As can be observed, in only a few years there

emerged a lot of institutions and consortiums in

connection with RIS introduction in Europe, which

brought fruit in many documents related to RIS

387

standards and requirements as a whole and vessel

tracking in particular. For the time being, the key

documents in this area are the RIS Directive, accept-

ed by the European Parliament and Council in 2005

(EP and UE Council, 2005), two Regulations 414

and 415 of 2007 by the Commission of the European

Communities, 2007 a & b, as also the previously

mentioned Resolution No.63 of the European Eco-

nomic Commission at the UN (UNECE, 2007). The

RIS Directive is at the moment the basic legal act in

Europe related to RIS. It establishes the framework

for distribution and using harmonised river infor-

mation services (RIS) in the Community. At the

same time, in matters concerning technical details

the Directive refers to the works of European Com-

mission, which issued two regulations on the subject

of tracking in RIS. Regulation 414/ 2007 contains

technical guidelines concerning planning, imple-

menting and operational use of river information

services (RIS), whereas Regulation 415/ 2007 per-

tains to technical specifications related to systems of

vessel traffic control within the scope of RIS.

4 PLACE OF TRACKING IN THE RIS

CONCEPT SYSTEM

According to the EU Directive, but also to some ear-

lier works, river information services are a few kinds

of services related to inland shipping, whose harmo-

nisation and standardisation are to serve objectives

resulting from general European needs in the scope

of surface transport. Three basic objectives of intro-

ducing RIS were defined in Regulation KE 414/2007

describing goals to be attained:

− transport should be safe;

− transport should be efficient;

− transport should be friendly to the environment.

The realisation of the above general goals, and al-

so partial objectives resulting from them, should be

possible by supporting particular tasks bound with

inland fleet management. They can be divided into

three groups with respect to “arenas” in which they

are realised (EC, 2007a):

− arena of transport logistics, in which parties initi-

ating transport cooperate with parties organising

transport (e.g. senders, consignees, loaders, for-

warders, freight brokers, shipowners);

− arena of transport, where the parties organising

the transport cooperate with parties realising

transport (e.g. shipowner, terminal operators);

− arena of traffic, in which parties realising

transport (e.g. vessel masters and navigators) co-

operate with parties managing the resulting vessel

traffic (e.g. respective authorities managing the

traffic).

Looking for a place for vessel tracking in this

flowchart, it will certainly be found among tasks re-

alised in the last arena. In order to present the loca-

tion even more accurately, in Fig.1 there have been

presented particular RIS services, dividing them ac-

cording to Regulation 414/2007 into services related

mainly to traffic and to services related mainly to

transport. It should be noticed that a few services

may be used for performing RIS tasks.

Figure 1 River information services in RIS

In Fig. 1 the services where target tracking can be

used have been marked in blue. Regulation 414/

2007 divides particular RIS services into RIS sub-

services, which are in turn realised by means of re-

spective RIS functions. Table 1 presents a division

of tracking-related services. Specifying the remain-

ing services is not necessary in the aspect of the

study’s subject matter. It should be noted, however,

that information on vessel traffic can be used in ser-

vices other than those marked, although they are not

directly bound with them. For example, for calamity

abatement support information on vessel traffic

seems to be essential.

In the RIS philosophy three information levels

have been introduced (EC, 2007a):

− information on fairways (FI);

− tactical traffic information (TTI);

− strategic traffic information (STI).

From the tracking point of view it is particularly

essential to distinguish between the last two. Traffic-

related services cover mainly these two information

levels.

Tactical traffic information is information affect-

ing the vessel master’s or VTS operator’s immediate

decisions made in relation to navigation in real navi-

gational traffic and concerning local traffic. Strategic

traffic information (STI) signifies information af-

388

fecting medium- and long-term decisions made by

RIS users. (EC, 2007a)

As sources of the tactical image, the radar, elec-

tronic chart and AIS are mentioned. This infor-

mation can be gathered directly on the ship or pro-

vided by the VTS centre. The strategic traffic image

is worked out at the RIS centre and is delivered to

the users on request. Strategic traffic area includes

all vessels of essential significance present in the

RIS area with their characteristics, determination of

cargo and position, presented as a table or plotted on

an electronic chart. So it seems that in a certain gen-

eralisation the tactical traffic image corresponds to

the concept of tracking, and the strategic traffic im-

age is based on the concept of tracing. It should be

remembered, however, that both tracking and tracing

provide different kinds of information, and joining

them gives the fullest tactical and strategic traffic

image.

It is surprising that in the functional decomposi-

tion of RIS services contained in regulations of the

Commission for European Communities, in the part

related to traffic, there is no function realising the

presentation of vessel movement parameters, which

are of key significance both for solving current colli-

sion situations and determining, say, the time of ves-

sels passing each other, or time of reaching the lock.

In the writer’s opinion, lack of such information

seems to be a gross oversight on the part of the au-

thors of the task-service RIS concept, as it is diffi-

cult to imagine constructing TTI or STI without such

information. Only in the service Traffic Manage-

ment there appear functions VTS.2 and VTS.3, in

which use is made of information pertaining to ves-

sel traffic.

The essence of vessel traffic control within the

scope of RIS was presented in more detail in Regu-

lation 415/2007 (EC, 2007b). It was acknowledged

in it that one task of the VTS system was to support

active navigation of vessels in the area. Three stages

of navigation were introduced there:

− navigation, prediction in medium time;

− navigation, prediction in short time;

− navigation, prediction in very short time.

Prediction in medium time denotes observation

and analysis of water traffic in advance of a few

minutes to an hour. The Master considers in that

time possibilities of approaching, passing and over-

taking other vessels. The required image exceeds the

range of deck radar, hence VTS information support

may prove necessary. This is certainly one of the

main areas of making use of tracking.

Prediction in short time is the decision-making

stage in the navigational process. Information con-

cerning traffic affects the navigational process, in-

cluding undertaking actions aimed at avoiding pos-

sible collision. In this stage, other vessels are ob-

served present at a short distance. In particular, it is

essential to track using the ship’s sensors, but shore

centre support may prove equally essential.

Prediction in very short time is the operational

stage of the navigational process that consists in re-

alising decisions made earlier and monitoring the re-

sults of such activities. Information required in this

case from other vessels are bound with the condi-

tions of a given vessels, such as relative position and

relative speed. In this stage it is necessary to give

very accurate data obtained by means of tracking.

As far as making use of tracking goes, the service

Traffic Organisation is equally essential. It concerns

traffic operational control and the planning of the

vessel’s movement in order to avoid traffic jams and

dangerous situations. This service is particularly im-

portant with high traffic intensity or in situations,

where special transports may affect normal traffic in

waterways.

To sum up it can be stated that tracking vessels

finds application within RIS for building a mainly

tactical, but also strategic traffic image. This in turn

is used by vessel control service and directly by nav-

igators on inland shipping vessels.

5 REQUIREMENTS SET FOR TRACKING IN

RIS

The basic documents presenting the standards and

requirements pertaining to tracking in RIS are the

previously mentioned Resolution of European

Commission 414/2007 (EC, 2007a), and also resolu-

tion 63 of the European Economic Commission at

the UN (UNECE, 2007), being the approval of

CCNR Standards, which in turn are the result of

work of an expert group called by the European RIS

platform (CCNR, 2006; Tracking and Tracing Ex-

pert Group, 2005). It should be noticed, however,

that in all these documents references can be found

to IALA work related to requirements in VTS vessel

management systems.

Standards for tracking devices in inland waters

can be considered in two ways. Firstly, from the

ship’s side, that is as requirements for devices

mounted on the vessel, and secondly from the VTS

side, as requirements for shore devices.

In the first case two documents seem to be cru-

cial. The first of them contains requirements pre-

pared by CCNR concerning radar devices mounted

on vessels navigating on the Rhine (CCNR, 2004).

These requirements in turn became the basis for

working out guidelines by the European Telecom-

munication Standardisation Institute related to navi-

gational radar devices in inland waters (ETSI, 2006).

The standards presented both requirements and test-

389

ing methods. The fact deserves attention that they do

not give guidelines for tracking targets, which is

why it can be concluded that it is not required at all

in river radar. On the other hand, there are relatively

high demands related to measurement accuracy of

targets’ position and discrimination. The document

mentioned does not exclude, however, the possibil-

ity of enriching radar by additional software, which

is why manufacturers frequently apply „tracking

overlays” on the radar, where the tracking accuracy

approximates marine tracking systems.

There are definitely more requirements for track-

ing devices within the scope of VTS systems. Inter-

national tracking and tracing standards recommend

that dynamic data in the VTS should be delivered

with various accuracies for particular services in ac-

cordance with Table 1.

At the same time these documents indicate that

the radar remains the basic source of navigational in-

formation, stressing the considerably rising role of

AIS, which is able to improve significantly the

quality of data acquired about the targets. As the

work of the expert group was concentrated above all

on preparing new AIS standards for inland waters,

however, it seems justified in the Regulation of the

European Commission to refer to IALA documents,

which is the institution to set down VTS standards.

In 2001 there appeared IALA guidelines pertaining

to VTS systems in inland, which subsequently be-

came the resolution of the European Economic

Committee at the UN (UNECE, 2005), and were al-

so adapted by the CCNR (CCNR, 2006). There was

included general information on creating vessel

management systems in inland waters, for more de-

tailed guidelines it being referred to, inter alia,

IALA requirements for devices used in VTS sys-

tems, V-128. This document has lived to a few edi-

tions, the latest of which (3

version) appeared in

2007 (IALA, 2007).

Table 5 Accuracy requirements for dynamic data in VTS

__________________________________________________

service position SOG COG true course

______________________________________

m km/h º º

__________________________________________________

Navigation in 10 1 5 5

short time

VTS assistance 10 1 5 5

VTS traffic manag. 10 1 5 5

Lock operation 1 0,5 3

Bridge operation 1 0,5 3

__________________________________________________

IALA guidelines related to devices in systems of

VTS traffic control were divided into a few sections,

in which various appliances are described. Three

various accuracy levels were introduced for all of

them (basic, standard and extended) bearing in mind

economic and technological indexes.

According to IALA guidelines, radar devices are

the basic source of navigational information. Be-

cause of the specificity of each VTS system (surface

shape, traffic density, economic factors, number of

radar stations etc.) IALA recommends that the com-

petent authority for a given VTS should lay down

individually the requirements for tracking in each

system, at the same time giving approximate refer-

ence values for a single coastal radar station (IALA,

2007). They were divided into three accuracy levels:

basic, standard and advanced. In the last two, the

permissible errors of course and speed determination

are 2º and 1 knot, laid down on the level of one

standard deviation (assuming Gaussian distribution),

for a target moving at uniform motion.

What seems interesting is the status of television

cameras in the RIS concept, and also VTS. Analys-

ing Regulation 414/2007 it can be noticed that the

CCTV camera is mentioned as one of the sensors

providing information on traffic on an inland water-

way; on the other hand, as it does not appear in any

other place in the regulation, its role remains actual-

ly unknown. The Tracking and Tracing Expert

Group does not mention the camera at all, concen-

trating on AIS. Only IALA devotes in their recom-

mendations a little more room to CCTV television,

but still moving about on a very general level. The

camera is indicated there as a potential cheaper than

radar source of information about targets in the VTS

system. It can fulfil the role of a separate sensor, or

supplement information acquired from radar with

additional data, like the ship’s name or kind. The

camera is presented as a good method of supple-

menting radar coverage in a VTS area. The possibil-

ity is admitted that the camera may track targets on

its own, but first of all its identification role is high-

lighted. The camera may show what the radar does

not see, e.g. the kind of vessel or danger. Exact re-

quirements are given with regard to the identifica-

tion function, but there are none such concerning

tracking. The only hint is the statement that in the

scope of reliability, accuracy, range and resolution a

system of industrial television has to meet the re-

quirements of VTS system and expert organisations

in the realm of graphics. In this case, the concept of

tracking seems to take on a meaning from computer

graphics, strictly speaking from computer vision,

where tracking means following something and con-

tinuous monitoring something rather than determin-

ing its movement parameters. Nevertheless, the

camera remains one of the sensors that can be used

in the VTS system as a source of information about

movement and target.

390

6 RECAPITULATION

The article characterises the subject matter of track-

ing surface water vessels in RIS systems. This is a

problem many international organisations have been

preoccupied with in recent years and the European

Commission has in some way “dotted the i’s and

crossed the t’s” by issuing directives in the RIS mat-

ter. Fortunately, the organisations mentioned coop-

erated with one another by mostly accepting solu-

tions worked out in common. In their light, as the

basic sources of information about vessels in the RIS

system there appear Inland AIS, tracking radar and

the vision camera within the framework of CCTV

industrial television network.

An unquestioned leader in this area is the AIS

system, whose introduction, also into inland waters,

has opened a completely new chapter in the history

of water traffic control. Its indications, assuming the

correct functioning of the system, are clearly the

most accurate. The radar system, though theoretical-

ly still the basis for tracking targets, ceases to be at-

tractive, not only because it gives a less accurate po-

sition than GPS, but also because it provides

significantly less useful information than AIS. The

camera in turn is a short-range sensor, and its appli-

cation for vessel movement vector estimation is

practically unusual. Therefore, only the linking of

both sensors into one complementary system gives

hope that it will be up-to-date and face the challeng-

es of modern times. What is more, such a system

will have basic advantage over the AIS system,

namely it will be independent from ship sensors and

therefore, the RIS operator will have full control

over it. AIS is based, after all, on information deliv-

ered by other vessels, and so, in case of their im-

proper functioning, it gives erroneous values. The

method of combined tracking based on radar and the

camera seems to be a natural attempt at “unification”

of these two sensors in order to meet the require-

ments set for modern tracking systems.

What seems most reasonable is making use of all

mentioned sensors for tracking targets in RIS, which

leads towards multi-sensor fusion of navigational

data.

REFERENCES

European Commission, 2007a. Commission Regulation (EC)

No 414/2007 of 13 March 2007 concerning the technical

guidelines for the planning, implementation and operational

use of river information services (RIS) referred to in Arti-

cle 5 of Directive 2005/44/EC of the European Parliament

and of the Council on harmonised river information ser-

vices (RIS) on inland waterways in the Community. Offi-

cial Journal of the European Union. 23 April 2007

European Commission, 2007b. Commission Regulation (EC)

No 415/2007 of 13 March 2007 concerning the technical

specifications for vessel tracking and tracing systems re-

ferred to in Article 5 of Directive 2005/44/EC of the Euro-

pean Parliament and of the Council on harmonised river in-

formation services (RIS) on inland waterways in the Com-

Community. Official Journal of the European Union. 23

April 2007

Tracking And Tracing Expert Group, 2005. Vessel Tracking

and Tracing Standard for Inland Navigation,

www.risexpertgroups.org

INDRIS, 2000. Policy summary report 2000,

ftp.cordis.europa.eu

COMPRIS, 2005. Inventory and guide to standards & recom-

mendations for COMPRIS and RIS, www.euro-compris.org

CCNR, 2006. Guidelines and criteria for vessel traffic services

on inland waterways, www.ccr-zkr.org

CCNR, 2004, Guidelines and recommendations for river in-

formation services, www.ccr-zkr.org

UNECE, 2007, International standard for tracking and tracing

on inland waterways (VTT), www.unece.org

ETSI, 2006, EN 302 194-1- Navigation radar used on inland

waterways: Part 1: Technical characteristics and methods of

measurement, www.etsi.org

IALA, 2007, IALA Recommendation V-128 - On Operational

and Technical Performance Requirements for VTS Equip-

ment, ed. 3.0, www.iala-aism.org