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A Chartplotter is a device used in marine navigation that integrates GPS data with an electronic navigational chart (ENC).
The chartplotter displays the ENC along with the position, heading and speed of the ship, and may display additional information from radar, automatic information systems (AIS) or other sensors.
As appropriate to particular marine applications, chartplotters may also display data from other sensors, such as echolocators or sonar.
Electronic chartplotters are by nature CPU (and GPU) intensive applications. Chartplotters need to retrieve the Navigation Signal (Galileo, GPS, GLONASS, WAAS etc.) and overlay that on a map. Map updates on dedicated hardware typically have screen refresh rates from 5 Hz to 30 Hz.
Some navigation software can run on standard computers (and mobile phones, etc.) but most higher end systems are dedicated hardware. Especially when the chartplotter generates three-dimensional displays, as used for fishing, considerable processing power and video memory may be required.
As with all marine systems, chart-plotters generally are not used alone. In commercial ships, they are integrated into a full system of marine instruments that can guide the ship under any conditions. These other instruments include Sonar transducers, integration with 2 Way Radio communication devices and emergency locators (EPIRB).
The integration of these devices is very important as it becomes quite distracting to look at several different screens. Therefore, displays can often overlay charting, radar, sonar into a single system. This gives the captain unprecedented instrumentation to maneuver the ship. With digital backbones, these devices have advanced greatly in the last years. For example, the newer ones have 3D displays that allow you to see above, below and all around the ship, including overlays of satellite imaging.
An individual electronic chart, or, more commonly, a database of charts, is the heart of a chartplotter. The chartplotter system can be no more accurate than its charts. Without charts that are accredited by appropriate governmental organizations, a chartplotter is an example of an Electronic Charting System (ECS). When the charts meet the technical requirements of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and national hydrographic bodies, the chartplotter can qualify as an Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS). ECDIS legally can be substituted for paper charts while navigating in active waterways, but vessels are required to maintain paper charts if their chartplotter does not use ECDIS.
ECDIS will use IMO-standardized formats, but some chartplotters require specific data formats. A charter may use one or both types of ENC:
A basic navigational display is common to all chartplotters. Depending on intended use and characteristics of the specific chartplotter, they may have options to present such displays as three-dimensional fish-finding and bottom characteristics useful in fishing.
These optional displays can be presented by commands to a single screen, causing the main display to be replaced with the one requested. Alternatively, chartplotters may offer split-screen modes on a single physical screen, or may support multiple physical displays.
Chartplotters may be programmable, and can be set to generate audible and visual alarms for conditions such as a potential collision, deviating significantly from the planned course, etc.
The principal function of a classic chartplotter is assisting a human pilot to plot and follow a course.
Safety-related Automatic identification systems (AIS), required on all passenger vessels and vessels of 300 tons and over, also assist in piloting, and can display on the chartplotter. AIS have collision avoidance, and avoidance of known hazards such as reefs, as their primary function. AIS depend on cooperative data communications among ships.
Vessel traffic services (VTS) go even farther as safety systems, being analogous to the proactive function of air traffic control systems. VTS assist vessel traffic control in routing vessels in busy waters. Other vessel-based safety collision avoidance functions are Automatic Radar Plotting Aids (ARPA), usually a component of the radar system or an accessory to it, and coupled with the radar system input to the chartplotter.
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, marine navigation, aeronautic navigation, and space navigation.
A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation. The navigator's primary responsibility is to be aware of ship or aircraft position at all times. Responsibilities include planning the journey, advising the ship's captain or aircraft commander of estimated timing to destinations while en route, and ensuring hazards are avoided. The navigator is in charge of maintaining the aircraft or ship's nautical charts, nautical publications, and navigational equipment, and they generally have responsibility for meteorological equipment and communications. With the advent of satellite navigation, the effort required to accurately determine one's position has decreased by orders of magnitude, so the entire field has experienced a revolutionary transition since the 1990s with traditional navigation tasks, like performing celestial navigation, being used less frequently. Using multiple independent position fix methods without solely relying on electronic systems subject to failure helps the navigator detect errors. Professional mariners are still proficient in traditional piloting and celestial navigation.
The automatic identification system (AIS) is an automatic tracking system that uses transceivers on ships and is used by vessel traffic services (VTS). When satellites are used to receive AIS signatures, the term Satellite-AIS (S-AIS) is used. AIS information supplements marine radar, which continues to be the primary method of collision avoidance for water transport. Although technically and operationally distinct, the ADS-B system is analogous to AIS and performs a similar function for aircraft.
A marine radar with automatic radar plotting aid (ARPA) capability can create tracks using radar contacts. The system can calculate the tracked object's course, speed and closest point of approach (CPA), thereby knowing if there is a danger of collision with the other ship or landmass.
An airborne collision avoidance system operates independently of ground-based equipment and air traffic control in warning pilots of the presence of other aircraft that may present a threat of collision. If the risk of collision is imminent, the system recommends a maneuver that will reduce the risk of collision. ACAS standards and recommended practices are mainly defined in annex 10, volume IV, of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. Much of the technology being applied to both military and general aviation today has been undergoing development by NASA and other partners since the 1980s.
The Yeoman Plotter was a plotter used on ships and boats to transfer GPS coordinates or RADAR echo locations onto a paper navigation chart and to read coordinates from the chart. It was manufactured from 1985 to 2014/2015 and was an intermediary step between traditional paper chart navigation and full electronic chart displays. It was easy to understand for people that were accustomed to paper charts and much cheaper than electronic chart displays available at the time. The continuing fall in prices of electronic chart displays, their increase in functionality such as radar overlay and the advent of cheap tablets eventually made the Yeoman plotter uncompetitive.
Voyage data recorder, or VDR, is a data recording system designed for all vessels required to comply with the IMO's International Convention SOLAS Requirements in order to collect data from various sensors on board the vessel. It then digitizes, compresses and stores this information in an externally mounted protective storage unit. The protective storage unit is a tamper-proof unit designed to withstand the extreme shock, impact, pressure and heat, which could be associated with a marine incident.
An electronic navigational chart (ENC) is an official database created by a national hydrographic office for use with an Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS). ECDIS and ENCs are the primary means of electronic navigation on cargo ships.
Kongsberg Maritime (KM) is a Norwegian technology enterprise within the Kongsberg Gruppen (KOG). Kongsberg Maritime deliver systems for positioning, surveying, navigation, and automation to merchant vessels and offshore installations. Their most well known products exist within dynamic positioning systems, marine automation and surveillance systems, process automation, satellite navigation, and hydroacoustics.
Passage planning or voyage planning is a procedure to develop a complete description of a vessel's voyage from start to finish. The plan includes leaving the dock and harbor area, the en route portion of a voyage, approaching the destination, and mooring, the industry term for this is 'berth to berth'. According to international law, a vessel's captain is legally responsible for passage planning, The duty of passage planning is usually delegated to the ship's navigation officer, typically the second officer on merchant ships.
Radar navigation is the utilization of marine and aviation radar systems for vessel and aircraft navigation. When a craft is within radar range of land or special radar aids to navigation, the navigator can take distances and angular bearings to charted objects and use these to establish arcs of position and lines of position on a chart. A fix consisting of only radar information is called a radar fix.
Monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS), in the context of fisheries, is defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations as a broadening of traditional enforcing national rules over fishing, to the support of the broader problem of fisheries management.
Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) is a general term to describe systems that are used in commercial fishing to allow environmental and fisheries regulatory organizations to track and monitor the activities of fishing vessels. They are a key part of monitoring control and surveillance (MCS) programs at national and international levels. VMS may be used to monitor vessels in the territorial waters of a country or a subdivision of a country, or in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) that extend 200 nautical miles (370.4 km) from the coasts of many countries. VMS systems are used to improve the management and sustainability of the marine environment, through ensuring proper fishing practices and the prevention of illegal fishing, and thus protect and enhance the livelihoods of fishermen.
Inland Electronic Navigational Charts (IENC) are electronic navigational charts for rivers, canals, lakes and other inland waters which are navigable. IENCs are displayed by an Inland Electronic Chart Display and Information System.
CMA CGM Medea is a container ship built in 2006.
Marine electronics refers to electronics devices designed and classed for use in the marine environment on board ships and yachts where even a small amount of salt water can destroy some electronics devices. Therefore, the majority of these types of devices are either water resistant or waterproof.
Marine radars are X band or S band radars on ships, used to detect other ships and land obstacles, to provide bearing and distance for collision avoidance and navigation at sea. They are electronic navigation instruments that use a rotating antenna to sweep a narrow beam of microwaves around the water surface surrounding the ship to the horizon, detecting targets by microwaves reflected from them, generating a picture of the ship's surroundings on a display screen.
e-Navigation is a strategy developed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), a UN specialized agency, to bring about increased safety of navigation in commercial shipping through better organization of data on ships and on shore, and better data exchange and communication between ships and the ship and shore. The concept was launched when maritime authorities from seven nations requested the IMO's Maritime Safety Committee to add the development of an e-navigation strategy to the work programs of the IMO's NAV and COMSAR sub-committees. Working groups in three sub-committees and an intersessional correspondence group, led by Norway, has subsequently developed a Strategy Implementation Plan (SIP). Member states of IMO and a number of Intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations have contributed to the work, including the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), Comité International Radio-Maritime (CIRM), the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities (IALA), the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
Enhanced radar positioning is a proposal for a position fixing system in maritime navigation, based on radar navigation. It is the automation of the process of determining own position by means of radar fixing, using a multitude of objects with known position as reference.