International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 1

Number 2

June 2007

177

The Role of Navigational Aids Such as

Radar/ARPA, ECDIS, AIS, Autopilot, on Safe

Navigation at Sea

H. Yousefi

Chabahar Maritime University, Iran

ABSTRACT: Chabahar Maritime University has started radar/ARPA simulator training course since 2004 and

the training has been carried out fully comply with STCW95 Convention and the IMO model course.

According to the improvement in navigational technology, the reducion of Navigational Aids as two credits of

the latest BSc sylabus for future officers on board ships will be discussed through this article in depth.

In addition to the above, the author attempts to describe the AIS (Auomatic Identification System) which is

defined by IMO and has been adopted by the latest revision of SOLAS chapter V. In fact, the AIS is part of

ship’s radio station and is surveyed together with radio installation. The AIS training is going to be taken

place from next semester at Chabahar Maritime University in order to improve the skill of the trainees in order

to rely the information provided by AIS..

1 RADAR/ARPA SIMULATOR TRAINING

COURSE

Based on Section A-1/2 of STCW95 Convention,

training of marine simulator regarding Radar and

ARPA Courses are compulsory for future officers

and masters on board ships. According to the above

sction of STCW95 Convention, the following factors

should be consideed:

− be suitable or the selected objectives and training

tasks and be capable of satisfying the specific

assessment objectives;

− be capable of simulating the operating cababi-

lities of shipboard eqipment concrned, to the level

of physical realism appropriate to tranng of

assessment objectives, and include the

capabilities, initiations and possible erroe of such

equipment;

− have sufficient behavioural realism to allow

a trainee to acquire and a candidate to exibit the

skills appropriate to the training and assessment

objectives;

− provide a contolled opearating environment,

capable of producing a vriety of conditions,

which may include mergency, hazardos or

unusual situations relavant to the training and

assessment objectives;

− provide an interface through which a trainee can

interact with the equipment, the simulated

environment and, as appropriate, the instructor;

and

− present an instructor, and assessor the ability to

control, monitor and record exercises for the

effective debriefing of trainees and effective

assessment of the performance of candidates.

In addition to the above essential simulator

training items, instructors and assessors should

consider some more factors in order to assess the

ability of candidates based on his/her competancey

level.

178

2 AUTOMATIC IDENIFIACTION SYSTEM

AIS is abbrivated as Automatic Identification

System which is being used to concur with the IMO

standards (MSc74,(69), annex3). Indeed, IMO

reccomended that it is compulsory for all vessels to

be equipped with AIS until July 2008. As Cap.Holder

said that we might discover that AIS could have a

positive or ngeative influence on collissions. Its

impact will be positive if it aids mutual recognition,

enhances the application of the correct rules and

proides unambiguous agreement of further action. It

will also be posiive if AIS can identify ships in

clutter or hidden behind bends.

In fact, AIS offers the following information

which can be categorized as three main group: a).

Constant information suach as name of ship, IMO

no, length and breath of ship, type of ship.b). Voyage

information such as draft, type of loaded cargo,

destination and ETA, etc. c). Changed information

such as time, compase course, position, ship speed,

sailing condition, etc.

David Patraiko pointed out that wihin a decade,

ships could have to fit VDRs, AIS and increasingly

ECDIS, wih a proliferation of different designs for

similar equipment.

In the meantime, Cap. EM.Scott stated that

...there are significant risks associated with the

introductin of AIS and regulators must resolve

uncertainty through practical research to evaluate

optimum displays.... therefore, seafarers can use AIS

guideline book which has been issued by IALA in

order to get following information:

1 Receiving information related to the AIS radar

targets that have been sent by local VTS.

2 Maximum 12 courses and way points with the

reccomended turning circle which are presented

by VTS.

3 Information regarding metorology, oceanography,

direction & velocity of wind, sea temperature, air

temperature, direction and speed of current, depth

of water, etc.

4 Navigational information such as crossing,

overtaking, head on situation, etc.

5 Reigonal or local information for safe navigation

at coastal waters.

3 THE ROLE OF ECDIS ON SAFE

NAVIGATION AT SEA

According to the new amendment of SOLAS

(no.19), ECDIS became a compulsory navigational

aids on board ships. The advantages of the system is

to save time for applying correction and a large

space as chartroom in the bridge. Peter Jones from

UK Hydrographic Office stated that... the emergency

of electronic publications with their additional

functionality and potential for more efficient

updating may assist in enhancing access to the full

range of relevant navigational information.

ECDIS can be used as an optimum equipment in

order to save all the ship’s courses, turning and

maneouvaring, etc. By installing ECDIS system,

moden technology, to all vessels; it may cause to

enhance safety at sea and improve seafarers

operational capability while sailing. Of course,

adoption of IMO regulations by all countries will

cause to provide clean, secure and safe sea. As

Andrew Hal as seafarer concluded in his presented

paper tha... I have no doubt that the increased use of

electronic charting can only improve safety and

efficiency of navigation.

4 GPS AND DGPS FOR SAFE NAVIGATION

It is essential to know that what is meant by GPS?

The system consists of three operational segments

such as a). Ground station tracking / processing

network b). Space based constellation of trans-

mitting satellites c). User segment consisting of GPS

navigation receivers. Ground station is controlled by

department of Defence of the United states and the

earth stations track the GPS satellites and the

information transmitted to each satellite every six

hours.

The space satellites consists of 27 operational

satellites which are distributed in six polar orbits and

located at an altitude of 20000 km above the earth’s

suface.

The receiver on the earh’s surface allows to see at

least four and max 12 satellites simultaneously with

10 degree elevation, it will be either a military

Precise Positioning Service (PPS) or civilian

Standard Positioning Service (SPS) unit. The GPS

receiver measures the time for a signal transmitted

by the satellite and multiplied by the velocity of light

in order to calculate latitude, longitude and height.

It should be noted that since the clock of the GPS

receiver is not synchronised with the satellite clock,

therefore to avoide of receiving large position errors

it is arranged to observe four or more satellites at the

same time. In 1980, the intenational surveying

companies offer Differential GPS (DGPS) with all

the capability of GPS plus better positioning

accuracy of +/_3 to 5 metres. The principle

configuration of DGPS is that by arranging one or

more GPS receiver as fixed reference stations in

order to measure ranges to all satellites in view; and

also calculate all the errors in the signals by DGPS

corredition processor then the DGPS corrections are

179

transmitted via the Inmarsat A,B or M compatible

marine satellite communications network.

DGPS service improves vessel safety for

navigating in confined waters or even as

hydrographic surveying or offshore construction

vessels and so on.

5 THE ADVANTAGES OF USING VDR FOR

SAFE NAVIGATION AT SEA

VDR or Vessel Data Recorded is used for recording

ship voyage information; it is called black box too

which is introduced based on the advanced

technology in shipping. The advantages of this

equipment is as follows:

1 Main Recording Unit (MRU) can record the

required information of IMO and shipowner up to

24 hours.

2 Voyage information capsule or main black box of

ship which is located at the heighest point of ship;

is can save the required IMO information up to

12 hours.

3 Electrical power of the equipment is supplied by

linking the system to the emergency power of

ships with a 2 hours battery.

4 The required information of the IMO for

passenger sips are as follows: date, time, latitude

and longitude, ship speed, ship course,

communication of perssonal at the bridge and

VHF, radar information, depth of water, ship

engines, velocity and direction of wind, alarm

system, etc.

6 THE ROLE OF NEW TYPE OF RADAR ON

SAFE NAVGATION AT SEA

Although, the technology of marine radars is under

progress, neverthless the latest technology of the

radars is going to be considered through this paper.

There is no any modification in the megnetron

system and the scanner of marine radars. Referring

to the new design of marine radars, radar display unit

of CRT has been changed LCD system. Based on

advanced technology, marine radars integrated wih

AIS which is quite important equipment in order to

prevent collision cases at sea.

The combination of the above two systems

require some corrections to be applied to the new

type of radards; for instance whether a marine radar

should be able to detect mountain and rock in 20

miles distance toward the land. Inded, a marine radar

must easily find the emergency signals from SART,

Racon, Beacon, etc and be able to detect small radar

targets in critical situations.

Concerning to the significance of marine radards,

Mike Pope (2002) concluded that ... I belive radar

will continue to play an important, if not crutical,

role in safety at sea. Even with the advent of high

accuray DGPS and AIS, radar will continue to be a

primary aid to navigation and collision avoidance.

7 CONCLUSION

Improvement in technology making new navi-

gational equipment to be become more complicated

for user or seafarers. Therefore, reducion of

Navigational Aids as two credits in the latest BSc

sylabus is not suitable for future officers on board

ships. It means that more emphasise should be taken

to improve safety of navigation. Use of advanced

equipment on board ships is not the solution for safe

navigation at sea; the qualify of training of new

navigational tools is vital for navigators which

should be considered by the nautical colleges.

REFERENCES

Buckens K, 2001,”How to work wih AIS”, The International

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Nigel S, 2002,”ECDIS-the future of navigation, The Inter-

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Hall A, 2002, Electronic Chart at Sea”, The International

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Robert G, 2003,”The devil is in the detail, a seafarer looks at

AIS”, The International Journal of the Nautical Institute,

Seaways.

Goddard J, 2002,”Getting added Value out of your VDR”, The

International Journal of the Nautical Institute, Seaways.

Scott E, 2002,”Integrated Bridge Systems”, The International

Journal of the Nautical Institute, Seaways.

Evans P., 1999,”The GPS/DGPS revolution”, The International

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