International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 5

Number 4

December 2011

423

1 INTRODUCTION

Maritime shipping is among the world’s most im-

portant industries. It can be compared to a cardio-

vascular system of the global economy – for thou-

sands of years ships of different types and sizes are

transporting goods between different countries and

continents, facilitating world trade by enabling some

routes and making other economically viable.

The risk of marine accidents has always be a ma-

jor consideration, as a factor which not only deter-

mines the economic viability and profitability of

shipping, but also directly endangers health and lives

of ship crews. Moreover, ships carrying hazardous

loads pose serious threats to the environment, as

well as to the lives, health and wellbeing of the peo-

ple and animals inhabiting coastal zones. The disas-

ter and damage caused in the event of a major sea

collision can be difficult and costly to deal with.

Collisions of even small craft often lead to serious

consequences, often including casualties.

Over the years huge efforts have been directed

towards improving the level of maritime safety, in-

cluding areas as diverse as ship design, certification,

training, fire safety, radio-communications, naviga-

tion rules, electronic chart systems, identification

systems, life-saving equipment, ship operation and

maintenance procedures and requirements, port op-

erations, pilotage and accident investigation. Interna-

tional treaties such as the International Convention

for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) (International

Maritime Organisation 2004) have been introduced

to prevent accidents by regulating those and other

maritime safety-related areas. A huge progress has

been achieved.

However, with the level of shipping constantly

growing in the long term, and reaching its historical

peak levels in the late XX and early XXI centuries,

the risks of accidents from categories as diverse as

equipment faults and breakdowns, fires and explo-

sions, personal injuries, collisions and groundings

are also growing, with the last two categories re-

Applications and Benefits for the Development

of Cartographic 3D Visualization Systems in

support of Maritime Safety

R. Goralski

GeoVS Ltd, Cardiff, UK

C. Ray

Institut de Recherche de L’Ecole navale

C. Gold

Faculty of Advanced Technology, University of Glamorgan, UK

ABSTRACT: Maritime shipping is among the world’s most important industries and is vital to the global

economy. With growing levels of traffic marine accidents pose a danger to health and lives of ship crews, en-

vironment, and have a strong impact on profitability of shipping and port operations. This underlines the ur-

gent need for the development of maritime navigation systems whose objective will be to contribute to a safer

sea. Amongst many technical and methodological issues to address, there is a need for more efficient elec-

tronic charting and radar display systems for use in navigation, traffic monitoring and pilotage, to improve the

level of situational awareness of ship navigators, Vessel Traffic Services (VTS) operators and marine pilots.

Cartographic 3-dimensional visualization (3D chart) facilitates fast and accurate understanding of navigation-

al situations in ports and at open sea, decreases mental overload and minimises fatigue, this supporting better

decisions for either sailors at sea or maritime authorities in charge of traffic monitoring. This leads to a reduc-

tion of human error which is the main cause of marine accidents. This paper presents the latest developments

and applications of cartographic 3D visualizations (3D charting) in marine navigation, VTS and pilotage.

424

sponsible for the majority of fatalities (Talley et al.

2006).

According to research by the U.S. Coast Guard

Research & Development Center (Rothblum 2006)

about 75-96% of marine casualties are caused, at

least in part, by some form of human error, with this

being the case for 84-88% of tanker accidents, 79%

of towing vessel groundings, 89-96% of collisions

and 75% of fires and explosions. Those numbers

show clearly that human error ranks as the major

contributor to different types of marine accidents,

including the most dangerous categories such as col-

lisions and groundings.

As shipping lanes are increasingly becoming

crowded with larger and faster craft, ship crews are

getting smaller. This puts a growing pressure on the

navigators, as well as on the on-board systems that

are required to provide them with decision-making

and navigation support.

Human errors can also come from control centre

(Vessel Traffic Services, VTS) on shore where peo-

ple might have difficulties to appreciate and antici-

pate a given situation due to the traffic load. Also

marine pilots, despite their excellent knowledge of

navigation and local expertise are not immune to er-

rors. Investigation of accidents such as the ground-

ing of Vallermosa (Marine Accident Investigation

Branch 2009) indicate insufficient level of support

from ship crews, mental overload, inability to com-

prehend and control the developing scenario, the

lack of situational awareness, and the absence of co-

ordination and support from VTS operators among

main causes of accidents involving pilot-led vessels.

The latest technological breakthroughs including

radar, electronic charting (Electronic Chart Display

Information Systems, ECDIS), traffic control and

management (VTS) and automatic identification and

communication (Automatic Identification System,

AIS) brought a significant improvement to the prob-

lem of maritime navigation safety, contributing

greatly to improved navigational awareness, colli-

sion-avoidance information and guidance available

to navigators. However, they have not eradicated the

problem and marine accidents still happen frequent-

ly, often due to fatigue, mental overload and limited

awareness of the navigational situation.

This can be improved by offering more visually

efficient and both easier and quicker to understand

chart display systems based on cartographic 3D vis-

ualization to navigators, pilots and VTS operators.

Three-dimensional charts are proven to dramatically

reduce the number of human mistakes and improve

the accuracy and time efficiency of navigational op-

erations, compared to traditional 2D charts (Porathe

2006), including Electronic Chart Display Infor-

mation Systems (ECDIS). To minimise human error,

and in consequence reduce the number of accidents,

they could be applied at several stages of the mari-

time safety management process, including on-board

ship navigation, vessel traffic monitoring (VTS) and

pilotage. They also can be used in training and pro-

vide significant insight in accident investigation.

2 NAUTICAL ELECTRONIC CHARTS

Maps are among the oldest forms of graphical com-

munication, and are the most effective and efficient

mean for transfer of spatial and geographical infor-

mation (Kraak 2001). Over the years, different types

of maps have been developed with different cultural

and application backgrounds, and used for many as-

pects of our everyday lives. More recently, maps

have moved from paper to digital formats and are

becoming more popular than ever.

From the navigational perspective electronic

charts offer a number of benefits over their paper

equivalents, allowing for dynamic analysis of vessel

position and chart data for alerting about potential

groundings, integration with bridge equipment and

presentation of combined information from sensors

such as GPS, radar and AIS, and automation of typi-

cal navigational tasks, such as plotting the course or

calculating different parameters of the planned route.

This integration and automation helps in reduction

of navigators’ workload, and offers more accurate

understanding of the navigational situations.

2.1 State-of-the-art

Due to its obvious benefits electronic charting is ful-

ly supported, and encouraged, by the International

Maritime Organization (IMO), International Hydro-

graphic Organization (IHO) and member state regu-

lators, who developed a standard for Electronic

Chart Display Information System (ECDIS), with an

objective to replace maritime maps on the decks of

commercial ships with automated and electronic

charts. An ECDIS system comprises the official nau-

tical chart data (International Hydrographic Bureau

2000) stored in the vector IMO/IHO Electronic Nav-

igational Chart (ENC) format produced by national

hydrographic offices (Fig. 1), a type-approved real-

time 2-dimensional display conforming to perfor-

mance and display standards associated with the cur-

rent position of a vessel obtained from GPS, a user

interface to perform basic navigational tasks, with

optionally integrated information from AIS, radar,

and other bridge instruments.

The carriage of type-approved ECDIS will be-

come mandatory on all merchant and passenger

ships with a transitional schedule for the implemen-

tation of this requirement for different types of new

and existing ships starting from July 2012 (new pas-

senger ships of 500 gross tons or more, and new

425

tankers above 3000 gt) to July 2018 (retrofit on ex-

isting dry cargo ships of above 10000 gt).

Figure 1. ENC chart no GB50162B – the Port of Milford Ha-

ven – as viewed in an ECDIS, with additionally marked loca-

tion of the Port Control (VTS operations centre)

VTS centres and pilots usually use non-approved

chart display systems based on official ENC charts

(Electronic Chart Systems, ECS), offering special

functionality for situation analysis and tracking of

port operations.

Leisure boating enthusiasts have a broad selection

of chart plotters, which do not have to conform to

regulations, available on the market, and these are

constantly gaining in functionality and popularity.

2.2 Supporting technologies

The main purpose of a charting system, or an EC-

DIS, is to display the relevant chart and navigational

information and to automatically present the ship in

this context. This is done by overlaying the ship’s

position as received from a satellite navigation tran-

sponder on a digital chart.

However, one of the most appealing functionali-

ties of digital charts is the possibility of easy integra-

tion of additional information received from other

systems or on-board sensors and devices. This may

include meteorological data (from weather station,

or from weather forecasts), digital compass, and oth-

er, but most importantly the information about sur-

rounding obstacles and traffic which is very helpful

in avoidance of dangers. This information may come

from radar (drying features, obstacles, other ships),

sonar (bathymetry), but also from Automatic Identi-

fication System (AIS) which is one of the most sig-

nificant recent technological developments, allowing

for reliable and easy detection and identification of

ships within a range of up to 35 NM. An AIS tran-

sponder generally integrates a transceiver system, a

GPS receiver and other navigational sensors on

board such as a gyrocompass and a rate of turn indi-

cator. It runs in an autonomous and continuous

mode, regardless of its location (e.g., open sea,

coastal or inland areas). The transmitted information

is broadcasted through VHF communications, to sur-

rounding ships and to VTS systems operated by

maritime and port authorities.

The International Maritime Organization has

made the AIS a mandatory standard under the Safety

of Life at Sea (SOLAS) convention for all passenger

and international commercial ships, and these are

now equipped with AIS transponders.

2.3 Limitations

Despite the progress brought with the shift towards

digital charting and introduction of ECDIS and other

technologies, 2-dimensional maps are sometimes

difficult to interpret from a cognitive point of view.

Users have to generate a mental model of a map, ro-

tate it and match with real world and translate the

symbols and map features towards some abstract

concepts. This explains why so many people have

difficulties with the interpretation and understanding

of 2-dimensional maps, this often resulting in errors

and sometimes leading to fatal mistakes.

This is true even for trained navigators, especially

when they are tired or under pressure, with high lev-

els of stress and mental overload, which are typical

for marine navigation. The time and mental effort

required for understanding of 2-dimensional maps

has severe consequences in areas where time for

analysis of the situation is crucial. This is the case

for example in navigation of high-speed marine

craft, where not only situation changes quickly, and

available time for reaction is limited, but tiredness of

navigators further limits their cognitive capabilities.

(Porathe 2006) describes several cases of high speed

vessels crashing into rocks, among them one involv-

ing 16 death casualties. All these collisions were

caused by poor understanding of the situation or

temporal loss of orientation by navigators, despite

being guided by modern digital 2D chart displays.

3 3D VISUALIZATION IN MARITIME SAFETY

3.1 State-of-the-art

The application of 3D visualization to maritime safe-

ty is not a new idea. 3D presentations are widely

adopted, extensively used and highly regarded in

some areas of the maritime safety management pro-

cess, such as for example in marine navigation train-

ing, where realistic 3D simulators are a safe, cheap,

convenient and reliable way of gaining navigational

experience, or in ship building, where three-

dimensional Computer Aided Design (CAD) sys-

tems are extensively used for design and modelling.

However, for some reasons, 3D visualization has

not been successfully adopted in real-time 3D navi-

gation, VTS or pilotage. There are no professional

3D charting systems available on the market, with

426

very limited success of adoption of 3D perspectives

in chart plotters offered to the leisure market. The

same situation is true in the VTS or pilotage opera-

tions where ECDIS-like 2D chart displays are com-

monly used. The possible reasons for this are dis-

cussed in Section 4.2.

3.2 Cartographic vs. photorealistic 3D

It is important to stress the importance of the distinc-

tion between photorealistic and cartographic 3D

presentations. The representatives of the first group

are meant for realistic representation, or mimicking

of the real world, and are known from computer

games and navigation training simulators. The goal

in simulation is clear: to recreate the situation and

conditions of navigating at sea with greatest possible

accuracy, to offer a trainee as much practice time as

possible in diverse nautical conditions, without the

risk, time and cost of going into the sea. As such,

simulators have to be built to represent the realism

of the situation with all its negative aspects, such as

inability to see more than the view out of the win-

dow and of what typical bridge instruments would

present, which offers a limited situational awareness.

Just as a well-designed 2D chart differs from a

photograph, cartographic 3D presentations are dif-

ferent from their photorealistic counterparts. Carto-

graphic 3D visualizations (3D maps) enhance and

facilitate the understanding of the presented situa-

tion, by clarifying and tailoring the presentation to

user needs, and are designed for the highest possible

efficiency of information transfer. As outlined in

more detail in Section 5.1, to achieve that purpose

they use cartographic principles equivalent to or ex-

trapolated from 2D cartographic rules.

3.3 Potential and benefits

Despite the observation that 3D visualization is cur-

rently not present at all or used only to a very limited

degree in maritime navigation, research and experi-

ments indicate that the application of 3D in marine

charting may offer significant benefits, including

faster and more accurate understanding of the por-

trayed situations and higher level of operational

comfort, when compared to their 2D counterparts.

This potential is based on the inherent ease of un-

derstanding of 3D representations which is a conse-

quence of the way we see the world, and how 3-

dimensional representations appeal to our brains

(Van Driel 1989). The process of perception in three

dimensions has been perfected by millions of years

of evolution, because prompt recognition of poten-

tial dangers was, and still is, crucial for survival.

According to estimates, about 50% of brain neurons

are used in the process of human vision. 3-

dimensional views stimulate more neurons and

hence are processed quicker (Musliman et al. 2006).

3-dimensional maps resemble the real world to a

greater degree than their traditional 2D counterparts,

and are more natural to human brain (Schilling et al.,

2003). Another advantage is that 3D symbols can be

recognized very quickly even without special train-

ing or referring to a legend.

Based on experiments conducted with different

types of maps, Porathe (2006) argues that 3-

dimensional maps are not only quicker to understand

but also provide improved situation awareness, and

have strong potential of helping to minimize human

error in marine navigation and the resulting marine

accidents. In his experiments Porathe asked a group

of participants with different characteristics (age,

sex, navigational experience) to perform a simulated

navigational exercise using four different types of

charts: paper, digital 2D north-up, digital 2D heads-

up and interactive 3D chart. The efficiency of navi-

gation using each map type was measured as the

time required to complete the task, the number of

mistakes (groundings) made during its execution,

and the perceived difficulty of use. The results

showed that the use of 3-dimensional maps led to

up-to 80% reduction in the number of navigational

mistakes, as well as more than 50% reduction in the

time required for the completion of the simulated

navigational task, when compared to 2D charts.

Three-dimensional maps were also voted by the par-

ticipants as the most friendly and easy to understand.

A very important finding was that the patterns of

the results were similar in every participants group,

regardless of their navigational experience level.

While on average experienced navigators completed

their tasks faster and caused less groundings a simi-

lar increase of efficiency and reduction of error was

observed for their group, as for inexperienced users.

And just as inexperienced group trained navigators

appreciated the perceived friendliness of and ease of

navigation using 3D charts.

It is our belief that this benefits can and should be

transferred from the experimental research domain

into the world of real navigation, to offer the bene-

fits of 3D charting to navigators, and reduce the

number of accidents in ports and at sea. The im-

provements to maritime navigational safety can be

gained by application of 3D visualization to naviga-

tional charts for use in real-time in navigation, VTS

operations and pilotage, or for analysis, training and

accidents investigation with use of historical data re-

cordings.

427

4 NAUTICAL 3D VISUALIZATION

4.1 Previous work

The idea of 3-dimensional navigational charts was

initially introduced in (Ford 2002) with the conclu-

sion that 3-dimensional visualization of chart data

had the potential to be a decision support tool for re-

ducing vessel navigational risks. A prototype chart-

ing system was based on custom-prepared 3D model

of the selected area.

Figure 2. Bridge view in the “3D ECDIS” prototype

Arsenault et al. (2003) presented a prototype 3D

visualization system that used an overlay of a

scanned paper navigational chart over a 3D bathym-

etry, and served as a platform for research on con-

cepts that might be used in the “chart-of-the-future,”

including merging tidal and bathymetric information

and simultaneous display of multiple linked views.

Gold et al. (2004) proposed a prototype of an in-

teractive 3-dimensional “pilot-book” for the East

Lamma Channel in Hong Kong, with 3D model

(map) of the area derived from the corresponding

ENC cell, and manually converted into a 3D presen-

tation with the use of satellite DTM and ortho-

imagery.

Porathe (2006) introduced a prototype charting

system, with custom-built visual vocabulary of guid-

ance symbols, comparable to virtual signs on a mo-

torway, for use in navigation. The system worked on

manually prepared 3D model of the selected area.

Goralski & Gold (2008) proposed a “3D ECDIS”

prototype based on a custom-designed 3D visualiza-

tion engine, kinetic spatial data structures and ergo-

nomic manipulation interface (Fig. 2). The system

used official ENC charts to automatically create re-

al-time 3-dimensional display associated with the

current position of vessels.

Figure 3. Immersive real-time 3D visualization of a sailing re-

gatta (Brest Bay)

Ray et al. (2011) presented a 3D virtual environ-

ment based on an interactive 3D chart for tracking of

marine vessels and visualization of a sailing regatta

competition for a wider public in real-time (Fig. 3).

The system was based on a real-time tracking and

dissemination platform introduced by Bertrand et al.

(2007, Fig. 4).

Figure 4. Real-time data recording and dissemination architec-

ture

Ternes et al. (2008) proposed a prototype 3D vis-

ualization system developed with the Port of Mel-

bourne, for support of navigation during hydro-

graphic surveys. System works with manually-

prepared 3D models and proved to be very effective

in helping to maintain accurate survey track with the

use of virtual boys and markers.

4.2 Inhibiting factors

After analysing the benefits of 3D visualization to

maritime navigation safety, including the results of

experiments, and reading about various prototype

developments proposed in the last decade an im-

portant question occurs. If 3D charts have been

proven to be so efficient and have been proposed by

a number of researchers, why they have not become

popular and are not used widely for navigation?

Why they seem to never have moved beyond re-

428

search prototypes stages? And why, unlike hugely

popular 3D marine navigation simulators, they are

not commercially successful and available on the

market? These are complex questions, and our expe-

rience suggests that there are several combined rea-

sons for this situation.

The first reason is in technical complexity. Build-

ing a robust, reliable and usable 3D charting product

that is designated for constant real-time use in a very

important and responsible function, upon which the

safety of people relies (which an aid to navigation

certainly is) is a much more demanding task than is

the case for either digital 2D chart or a training sim-

ulator.

This is combined with well-meant and fully justi-

fied conservatism and scepticism of the regulators

and the industry. It took years for the industry to

acknowledge and appreciate the benefits of 2D

charting and to develop and embrace standards such

as ECDIS. The regulators, shipping operators and

navigators have to be cautious in entrusting any new

technologies which have not been fully validated

and tested in practice.

The technical complexity and industry conserva-

tism make development of professional 3D charting

a costly and relatively risky endeavour, which re-

quires more resources and a longer development

time, with significantly more difficult quality con-

trol, while not necessarily leading to gains which

would compensate for it.

On top of that, but partially resulting from the

above problems, are the legal limitations. We cannot

really have a 3D ECDIS at the moment, because it

would not fulfil very strict and precise standards of

information presentation set out by the regulators.

3D is not an option for type-approved ECDIS dis-

plays and it seems unlikely that this will change for

many years to come.

Another consideration is the cost of data acquisi-

tion and the availability and coverage of 3D charts.

In all prototype systems listed above, with the ex-

ception of the prototype “3D ECDIS” by Goralski &

Gold (2008), 3D charts had to be manually created

in a laborious process, which restricted their usabil-

ity to the selected areas of interest.

Apart from the other reasons, there is the concep-

tual difficulty and lack of experience, tradition and

know-how in efficient presentation of cartographic

information in 3D. Unlike 2D cartography which has

been practised and developed for hundreds or even

thousands of years, 3D cartography is rather new

and is a largely uncharted territory. Several re-

searchers in the area, including Haeberling (2002)

and Meng (2003) complained about the lack of

available research in the field, and the situation has

not improved since. That leads to a situation where

very little knowledge and guidance is available to

potential producers of 3D mapping systems.

Part of the above refers to the difficulty of build-

ing efficient presentations of data in 3D, while an-

other part concerns the complexity of design of er-

gonomic user interfaces for efficient operation of (or

navigation within) 3D charts, which with the addi-

tion of the extra dimension becomes an incompara-

bly more difficult task than in 2D.

All the above factors combined contribute to the

delay in adoption of 3D charting, but in our opinion

none of the discussed reasons should stop this bene-

ficial process, providing that the requirements for

successful 3D charting products will be fully under-

stood, and the identified difficulties solved.

4.3 Requirements

From the analysis of the difficulties inhibiting and

delaying the popularisation of 3D charting in marine

navigation it seems clear that successful 3D charting

products should fulfil a number of requirements.

Firstly, they should be at least as robust and relia-

ble as their 2D counterparts are, to be able to over-

come the reservation and scepticism with which the

regulators and maritime industry rightly treat all new

technologies.

Secondly, 3D charts should be applied first where

legal regulations do not preclude them. There are no

reasons why they could not be used in VTS or pilot-

age, and in professional navigation they can be used

as add-ons to, or alongside, rather than instead of,

type-approved ECDIS.

Thirdly, to tackle the problem of costly data ac-

quisition and availability they need to be universal.

Ideally they should work with existing, approved

and widely available standards of chart data, such as

ENC charts, and generate 3D models of the covered

areas automatically.

Fourthly, they need to be user-friendly and ergo-

nomic. Their operation and manipulation has to be

effortless, natural and intuitive, and cannot be cum-

bersome or distracting.

Finally, they have to use cartographic principles

to maximise the efficiency of information presenta-

tion and transfer.

Fulfilling all the above requirements may require

extra cost and time for research and development,

but is necessary to produce 3D charts that can be

used and relied upon even in the most demanding

conditions, and should be worthwhile due to benefits

that well-designed 3D charts would bring to marine

navigation.

429

5 NAUTICAL 3D CHARTS

5.1 3D Cartography

Cartography is the discipline dedicated to study and

practice of production, interpretation and use of

maps, and includes all related scientific, technical

and artistic activities and aspects (Edson 1979). The

expertise of cartographers involves the knowledge of

visual design – to make maps as readable as possible

– as well as diverse related areas such as the process

of map production and distribution, different forms

of map use and applications but also the underlying

technologies and algorithms, as well as the psycho-

logical mechanisms of human perception and cogni-

tion.

The scope of 3D cartographic knowledge is an ex-

tension of the traditional cartography, but includes

areas and aspects which either need to be adapted for

the use with the additional dimension, or are com-

pletely new.

Visual design is one of the examples from the first

category. Cartographic presentations, i.e. maps, re-

quire carefully designed symbols and methods for

presenting different types of information. They use

the principles of symbolism, generalisation and ab-

straction. In 3D some symbols, texts and numbers

may be presented using methods similar to those

known from 2D. Other may need to be represented

differently – for example as self-explanatory 3D

models of the real-world objects, including the 3D

model of the terrain (and bathymetry) of the present-

ed area. The 3D representations do not have to be

photo-realistic to be easily understandable. In fact

non-photorealistic computer graphics is known for

its capability to provide vivid, expressive and com-

prehensive visualizations with strong potential for

use in cartography (Durand 2002, Dollner 2007).

Desirable are dynamic algorithms for the optimisa-

tion of the chart display, to assure that the important

information is always presented efficiently.

Interactivity and manipulation interfaces are

among the examples of aspects which are complete-

ly new, or incomparably more important and com-

plex in 3D. Static 3D (perspective) presentations

have been known for years, but never gained much

popularity. This is due to their inherent limitations,

including the distortion of the perspective and the

problem of hidden regions. It is with the introduction

of the ability to interact with or within the presented

environments when 3D maps become truly benefi-

cial. A user of a 3D map needs to be able to freely

move in the represented area and test different per-

spectives to be able to fully understand the presented

situation. For that reason the design of highly inter-

active and ergonomic interfaces emerges as a new

area of interest for 3D cartography. The use of typi-

cal “arrows” (pan left, right, up and down) and

“zooming” (zoom in and out) buttons in a 3D map is

not a satisfactory option. Preferred are direct manip-

ulation interfaces which allow for constant and flu-

ent control of all the required levels-of-freedom in

an ergonomic, effortless and intuitive manner.

The trouble with 3D cartography is the already

mentioned lack of sufficient research results, re-

sources and know-how which would guide produc-

ers in their efforts of the development of truly usable

and efficient 3D charting products.

5.2 State-of-the-art

The deficiency of 3D cartographic research means

that each 3D chart development effort has to be

based not only on the existing body of knowledge,

but also add a significant amount of original work

into the subject.

This paper proposes a 3D charting (cartographic

3D visualization) system for marine navigation, VTS

and pilotage, using best practices and the scarce re-

search available on 3D cartography, as well as our

experiments conducted and experience gathered dur-

ing over the decade of its development at the Hong

Kong Polytechnic University, University of Gla-

morgan, French Naval Academy and GeoVS Lim-

ited. The system was designed based on the re-

quirements described in Section 4.3.

The navigation, VTS and pilotage systems are

built around the common 3D charting platform “C-

Vu” and are called respectively “C-Vu 3D ECDIS”

(add-on to type-approved systems), “C-Vu Surveil-

lance 3D VTS” and “C-Vu 3D Pilot” (for pilot boat

navigation, as well as pilot carry-on units.)

Apart from highly efficient 3D cartographic en-

gine the systems integrate with port and on-board in-

frastructure and sensors (GPS, AIS, radar, tide gaug-

es, weather stations, digital compass, ship register,

networking equipment) and offer robust recording

and distributed information dissemination architec-

ture for real-time remote multiple-display monitor-

ing as well as analysis and evaluation of historical

data – for training or accident investigation. Differ-

ent elements of the system integrate with each other,

allowing a pilot with a carry-on unit to see the com-

plete picture of the situation in the port as recorded

by the VTS, or for a mobile radar installed on a pilot

boat to feed into the main system, thus increasing

the local clarity of the radar picture or covering blind

spots. The architecture allows for redundancy of all

system elements for increased reliability.

In terms of usability “C-Vu” 3D charts offer a

global coverage with automatic generation of fully-

fledged 3D models from official ENC charts, with

the use of advanced Voronoi algorithms for terrain

and slopes reconstruction (Dakowicz & Gold 2003).

The user interface is kept simple and ergonomic – it

430

is tailored for the purpose of each system version –

and employs our original metaphor for navigation in

the 3D map area, which is coupled with a hardware

3D controller to allow efficient direct manipulation

in all directions with a single hand.

The 3D cartographic engine is built around a set

of custom-designed 3D models of navigational ob-

jects and different ship types, with dynamic algo-

rithms for optimisation of sizes, colours and spatial

orientations, to assure the highest possible level of

visual efficiency.

Underneath the visual layer are GIS-type kinetic

Voronoi-based algorithms that maintain spatial rela-

tionships between different objects in the model (in-

cluding the bathymetry), and may be used for pre-

diction and avoidance of collisions and groundings.

Figure 5. C-Vu Surveillance 3D VTS - bathymetry and terrain

model of the Port of Milford Haven as seen from the location

of the Port Control (traffic information not displayed)

All systems from the “C-Vu” family are in their

final development stage. “C-Vu Surveillance 3D

VTS” is currently being used and trialled for 24/7

VTS operations, and is being improved with the op-

erators feedback, in the Port of Milford Haven in

Wales, UK (Fig. 5). It is expected to be commercial-

ly available in the summer 2011 from GeoVS Lim-

ited, with “C-Vu 3D ECDIS” and “C-Vu 3D Pilot”

following later that year.

5.3 Future work

Future work will include the finalisation of the de-

velopment of the navigation and pilotage systems

from the “C-Vu” family, improvements of the dis-

tributed platform, as well as continued research

work on 3D cartography, visual efficiency, user-

chart interaction, decision support, and 3D charts’

applications.

Special focus will be placed on providing users

with efficient decision support, through employment

of the underlying spatial algorithms to the avoidance

of accidents, and the use of advanced behavioural

models for prediction of dangerous behaviour from

the participants of marine traffic (Le Pors et al.

2009).

Once a sufficient user base is built a team of oc-

cupational psychology researchers from the Univer-

sity of Glamorgan will undertake a formal assess-

ment, including qualification and quantification, of

the occupational comfort and efficiency benefits at-

tained by the use of 3D charts in VTS and naviga-

tion.

6 CONCLUSIONS

Although current maritime systems are relatively

successful, thanks to the development of digital

charting, vessel traffic systems and automated in-

formation and communication systems, there is still

a need for innovation in minimising human error and

reducing the number and severity of accidents at sea.

With advances in cognitive science and psychol-

ogy comes a better recognition of the strengths and

limitations of human perception and natural abilities

of our brains. New charting products should use this

knowledge and be designed to support the strengths

and minimise the limitations, to reduce errors made

by navigators, VTS operators and pilots.

3D charts were proposed and tested as a very ef-

ficient medium for fast and accurate transfer of nav-

igational information and enhancement of situational

awareness of ship crews, VTS operators and pilots,

even when working under pressure or when fatigue

significantly limits their cognitive capabilities. 3D

charts reduce mental overload and improve overall

occupational and operational comfort and efficiency.

The research presented in this paper explains the

benefits of 3D visualization in maritime safety, pre-

sents the state-of-the-art of 3D charting and intro-

duces a universal 3D chart display system based on

official ENC charts and integration with bridge or

port infrastructure.

The proposed system generates fully-fledged car-

tographic 3D models of any area from standard ENC

charts and is being prepared for use in marine navi-

gation, VTS and pilotage, where it provides a better

sense of the environment for many situations at sea,

this being an asset for safer navigation. The interface

developed can be used either in real-time for naviga-

tion monitoring and control, or for the analysis of

maritime navigation behaviours. The system is cur-

rently being trialled in the Port of Milford Haven for

its VTS operations, and has a potential to become

the first fully-functional commercial implementation

of a 3D VTS.

431

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