385
universality:ontologyshouldsupportthedifferent
kindofcontextualinformationinnavigationsafety
domain;
expressivity: ontology should support the
description of necessary number of a ttributes for
contextual information in navigation safety
domain.
Thecoreofontologyfornavigationsafetydomain
isabstractclassSituation.Subclasses ofthis
classare
Goals, Objects and Relations. Entities of the subclass
Objects can be physical or abstract and can have
characteristics(Attributes).Theyalsocanparticipatein
relations. The class Attributes define specific object
characteristicssuchaslocation,speed,course,vessel’s
name.ThePhysicalObject subclassisaspecifictypeof
Objects subclass which is characterized by following
attributes: speed, draught and location. Relations
subclass define the relation between sets of Objects.
Forexample,inRangeOf(X,Y)relationmeansthatone
instance of PhysicalObject X is within the range of
second instance of PhysicalObject Y. An important
aspect of Attributes and Relations
classes is that they
includetwovalueswhichcanbechangedovertime.
EachoftheseclassesisconnectedwithPropertyValues
classandisdefinedbytwotimedependentfunctions,
thefirstcharacterizesthecurrentvalueandtheother
characterizes the changing over time value. A new
PropertyValues isgenerated for
Attributes or Relations
whenEventcomesonaffectingAttributesorRelations.
Therefore, the value of Attributes or Relations can be
defined on request to PropertyValues at any time
(current, past or future). Event contains information
about environment obtained from different
heterogeneoussources(sensors)atsomepointintime
thatinfluences
specificAttributesandRelations.Event
containsthespecificentities,whichsignalchangesof
currentsituationandthusarethemeansbywhichthe
situationrepresentationevolves.
3 SITUATIONAWARENESSFORNAVIGATION
SAFETYDOMAIN
3.1 Situationawareness
Intheearly1980sofXXcentury,thesituationtheory
was developed by J.Barwise
and J.Perry [5–7] and
then was successfully extended by K.Devlin and
D.Pospelov [8, 9]. The situation awareness term has
many definitions and understandings. For the first
time this definition had been introduced by
M.Endsley. According to the classical definition,
situationawarenessis“theperceptionoftheelements
in the environment
within a volume of time and
space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the
projectionoftheirstatusinthenearfuture”[10].This
basicdefinitionwasaddedbyC.Dominguezatal.[11]
under which situation awareness includes the four
components:
informationabouttheenvironment;
integration of this information
with internal
knowledgeofrelevanceformentalrepresentation
ofthissituation;
applicationofthisrepresentation forfuturestudy
ofcurrentsituationinperceptioncycle;
forecastingthefuturesituations.
In this paper situation awareness is, therefore,
understood to mean continuous obtaining of
information about the environment from
heterogeneous sources
in order to provide safety,
integratingofthisinformationintoknowledgeabout
thecurrent situationand analysisof theirimpact on
safety,forecastingoffuturesituationsandassessment
their influence on safety. The situation awareness
process lies in understanding of surrounding
environment and what is going on around for
awareness of
how information, situations and their
impact influence on the concrete goals and tasks in
the present and near future. Significant factors, that
influences the on the correct and timely decision
making in case of dangerous situations, is the
availability of complete, accurate and relevant
information to decision makers. However, the
decisionmakingprocessinrealsystemsfortheevent
of maritimedangerousdevelopments is complicated
by such specific factors as time limit for decision
making, accuracy and relevant information limit,
incorrect, unexpected and sudden‐onset situations
whichchangeinrealtime.
Oneofthefirstmodelforsituationawarenesswas
proposed
byM.Endsley[12]andincludesthreelevel
oftheinformationprocessing:
Level 1 (Perception of elements in the
environment)–perceptionofthecurrentsituation,
its properties and dynamic development of
elements, related to observed situation, in
environment.
Level2(Comprehensionofthecurrentsituation)–
synthesis
of the disconnected elements of the
situation receivedontheLevel 1, comprehension
and processing of information, integration of
various heterogeneousdata anddetermination of
itssignificanceforparticularsituation.
Level3(Projectionofthefuturestatus)–available
prognosis of future actions and future situation
development based on knowledge
of situation
statusanditselements’behavior,fortakingtimely
decisionsonfutureactions.
Nevertheless,itshouldbenotedthattheproblem
integrationofheterogeneousinformationintoasingle
comprehensive picture of the environment at the
semantic level of human comprehension and
projectionremainsopen.
3.2 Situationawarenessforsafe
navigation
Maritime situation is, therefore, understood to
represent a set of parameters which directly or
indirectly, defined status of the monitored maritime
objectatthemoment.Maritimesituationawarenessis
an instrument for analysis of specific characteristics
andparametersofthemonitoredmaritimeobjectfor
the purpose the obtained information about
its
current status and forecasting its status in the near
future [14]. In turn, the term maritime situation
managementimpliesfocusedinfluenceonnavigation
safety decision support system in order to improve
thequalityof decisionmaking.Thisimprovementis
in large part attributable to the changing of
properties, characteristics
and parameters of the
system.