SPECIAL REPORT: INNOVATIONS IN INTEGRATED NAVIGATION SYSTEMS FOR VESSEL BRIDGE OPERATIONS
A Commanding Position John Hancock, Editor To be able to properly manage a ship, the bridge commander must be able to know what is happening with all of the functions being controlled
If today’s bridge resembles a computer control room, that’s because it is a computer control room. If it’s a more calm place than Hollywood might portray that’s because, in times of stressful operations, the last thing an officer needs is for the immediate environment to be stressful
I
N HIS article, Francis Slade dealt with the critical matter of safely and stably positioning vessels adjacent to the structures that they serve. But it is just as important to get the vessels to, from and between those structures in the first place, especially when working in a crowded sea area such as the North Sea, where there are many structures to be avoided between leaving harbor and reaching a destination. Navigation has always been the most important part of seamanship.
Managing Navigation and its Systems These days, navigation makes use of an array of technology assistance including radar, sonar and satellite guidance systems but one thing remains true – navigation is conducted from the bridge. However, the bridge today is a very different place from the bridge of only a few decades ago. If today’s bridge resembles a computer control room, that’s because it is a computer control room. If it’s a more calm place than Hollywood might portray that’s because, in times of stressful operations, the last thing an officer needs is for the immediate environment to be stressful. With so much data being fed into the system, there needs also to be a strategy to manage that data in the navigation of the ship. The International Marine Organisation or IMO (a UN agency focused on the safe operation of commercial shipping) has worked with a number of organizations to develop a strategy called e-Navigation. Essentially, the strategy seeks to minimize the risk of human error in the production and presentation of data but support the intelligence of human decision making using the data presented.
Control Means Seeing and Having Access to All Functions With the proliferation of systems to be controlled it has been necessary to find a way to bring those controls all together in a single workstation. In its ‘Nautical Safety – Offshore Service Vessels’ (section 2, Bridge design and configuration)16 12 | WWW.OFFSHORETECHNOLOGYREPORTS.COM
DNV states that, “The design and location of the workstations shall enable the ship to be navigated and maneuvered safely and efficiently by one navigator in ocean areas and coastal waters under normal operating conditions, as well as by two navigators in close co-operation when the workload exceeds the capacity of one person, and when under pilotage.” Integrated bridge systems bring together a number of technologies to enhance the navigation, positioning and general management of the ship. One such system is ECDIS (electronic chart display and information system), a navigation information that uses a computer and complies with IMO regulations to be used as an alternative to paper charts. Also radar and, especially where depth or underwater hazards are a problem, sonar can contribute to the information used to manage the ship and will be better able to do that if their information is presented through a single workstation rather than on different stations around the bridge. Inevitably, today, the whole system relies on IT. Good IT doesn’t emphasize the complexity and sophistication of a system that harnesses the power of millions of on-off switches to process massive amounts of data. Rather good software and design make IT a user-friendly support for good decision making and to minutely and second-by-second control specific systems such as dynamic positioning controlling thrusters. The multi-function workstation allows the officer from their working position on the bridge to see and control key functions in any operation and key applications to manage that operation. Modern bridge technology is designed around the officer’s seat so that he has an unrestricted view of information on the screens for each system. It’s also important that the seat position affords the officer an unrestricted view of the working areas of the ship; facing forward for navigation and course management and facing rearward over the working deck to manage supply and work operations. Going back to the DNV rules (see above), “The design and location of the workstations shall enable safe and efficient