safe bridge watchkeeping - ecdis for decision · pdf filesafe bridge watchkeeping - ecdis for...

Safe bridge watchkeeping -ECDIS for decision support

Digital ship Hamburg 2013

Jörgen Strandberg, Marine Performance ManagerRickmers Maritime Services

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• 5 targets visual5 targets visual5 targets visual5 targets visual

• 5 targets on radar5 targets on radar5 targets on radar5 targets on radar

• 5 targets on AIS5 targets on AIS5 targets on AIS5 targets on AIS

How many targets?How many targets?How many targets?How many targets?

A question to the audience;

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Chart

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Rickmers strategy

page 6

Bridge procedures,

training and

equipment that

emphasises...

Best practice in passage

planning and...Best practice in bridge

watchkeeping

From Tenerife 1977… to Heathrow 2008

We believe in the Pilot-CoPilot concept

Pilot – CoPilot concept

page 7

There are several benefits of ECDIS that improves safety over normal paper charts. There are however several limitations that needs to be overcome;

ECDIS as an enabler

page 8

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Why ECDIS?

Main Duties

• Avoid collision

• Avoid grounding

HOW???

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Why ECDIS?

Collect all info

Filter and analyze

• Stationary objects

• Moving targets

Judge searoom

Take action

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Fyra perspektiv på världen

13

Exocentric view

Mental rotations

14

Cognitive workload

Chart – North Up, scale?

Radar – X Up? Scale ?

AIS – North Up Scale?

3D systems?

Visual view – Head Up, perspective

15

Equipment

16

Cognitive workload – situational awareness

Integration of information allows for faster and more reliable interpretation, thereby improving situational awareness

ECDIS for primary navigation allows the navigator to stay in the cockpit by his windows and screens, reducing the loss of focus or night vision.

Cognitive workload – Situational awareness

page 17

Rickmers strategy

page 18

Bridge procedures,

training and

equipment that

emphasises...

Best practice in passage

planning and...Best practice in bridge

watchkeeping

MV Rena

page 19

An extract from the passage plan and

position plots fro the container ship

RENA who later run aground.

The “Rena” passage plan

A passage plan that only consists of pencil lines are not supportive enough for quick decision making

This is very evident in the Rena grounding.

page 21

Passage planning

Not just passage planning but

SupportiveSupportiveSupportiveSupportive passage planningA plan that is a decision making tool when something goes wrong (a threat or an error)

• When the Main Engine suddenly stops

• When a sailboat suddenly decides to cross the fairway

• When the pilot makes a mistake

• When there is sudden heavy rain

The key word is “sea room”the OOW should know at all times what is normal – caution - grounding

page 22

Supportive passage planning

Ship’s minimum depth requiredShip’s minimum depth requiredShip’s minimum depth requiredShip’s minimum depth required

Any merchant ship will start the passage planning process by establishing the minimum depth required for any leg of the voyage.

Then the navigational charts are marked with Go-No Go areas

page 23

Ship’s maximumShip’s maximumShip’s maximumShip’s maximum draftdraftdraftdraft +12.50 m+12.50 m+12.50 m+12.50 m

SquatSquatSquatSquat at intended speed +1.00 m

Reduction for height of tidetidetidetide -1.50 m

Safety marginmarginmarginmargin +1.00 m

Minimum depth requiredMinimum depth requiredMinimum depth requiredMinimum depth required 13.00 m13.00 m13.00 m13.00 m


A passage plan needs to have clear demarcations of what is normal, caution and danger

And in all cases, as much as possible of the available sea room needs to be included and indicated as “safe”

page 24


page 25

Ship’s maximumShip’s maximumShip’s maximumShip’s maximum draft draft draft draft NormalNormalNormalNormal +12.50 m+12.50 m+12.50 m+12.50 m

SquatSquatSquatSquat at intended speed +1.00 m


Safety marginmarginmarginmargin +1.00 m

Minimum depth required Minimum depth required Minimum depth required Minimum depth required NormalNormalNormalNormal 13.00 m13.00 m13.00 m13.00 m

Ship’s maximumShip’s maximumShip’s maximumShip’s maximum draft draft draft draft CautionCautionCautionCaution +12.50 m+12.50 m+12.50 m+12.50 m

Without SquatSquatSquatSquat 0.00 m


Without Safety margin 0.00 m

Minimum depth required Minimum depth required Minimum depth required Minimum depth required CautionCautionCautionCaution 11.00 m11.00 m11.00 m11.00 m

Grounding – caution – normal – caution – grounding

Less 11m 13m or more 13m 11m less

Traditional passage

planning in a paper chart

A safe “ideal” route

“No-go” areas…but the actual islands are not covered!

A safe corridorWith parallell-indexing as all-

weather-non-GPS-positioning

Safety in an ECDIS

Safe navigation in an ECDIS is intended to be based on 2 key features

• Safety contourSafety contourSafety contourSafety contour

• Separating Navigable waters from Non-navigable

• RouteRouteRouteRoute

• Route editing

• Route checking

• Route monitoringpage 33

Safety in an ECDIS

Safety contourSafety contourSafety contourSafety contour

Unfortunately, the safety contours in normal ENC charts are too blunt to be used to distinguish minimum depth required.

• Depth contours may be 3 – 5 – 10 – 20m in a port where max draft allowed is 14.5m

• If the ship sets 13m safety contour in this area the ECDIS will select the next higher safety contour (20m) and the entire sea area will be deemed as non-navigable.

• Spot soundings may still indicate depths of up to 19.9m.

• Only dredged areas with a value of 13m or higher will be displayed as safe waters.

page 34

TSS German bightTSS German bightTSS German bightTSS German bight

page 35

TSS German bightTSS German bightTSS German bightTSS German bight

page 36

The area of TSS German bight is covered by ENC

produced by Germany. The only available contours are

10m and 20m. Our ship with a MRD of 13m will be forced

to cross the safety contour into Non-navigable waters

Safety in an ECDIS

Safety contour Safety contour Safety contour Safety contour ---- ViolationsViolationsViolationsViolations

For normal use of ECDIS and ENCs, we are frequently forced to sail in “unsafe waters”.

This becomes a safety issue that needs to be managed

• The visual impression of the chart is terrible –deep blue.

• Isolated dangers may not be displayed!

page 37

Isolated dangers

Until the ENC contain enough contours for use as safety contours, ECDIS users must get used to having their ships sailing inside the Non-navigable waters

It is therefore vital that isolated dangers in non-navigable waters ARE displayed as DANGEROUS the same way as in navigable waters.

page 38

San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Bay

A vessel with 13m draft is

trying to leave Frisco.

Safety Contour is set to 15m

San Francisco Bay, Safety contour 15m


The available contours in the

charts are 9.1 or 18,2m


The safety contour feature is not

useful or helpful.

We need a workaround!

ECDIS work-around

• Highlight Ship’s minimum depth required [MDR]

• Set the safety depth to MDR

• Suppress other soundings if possible

• Create a new “contour” using soundings

• Use a drawing tool to create “No-go” areas (user chart) over all dangerous soundings

• Colour the area red and assign the property “danger”

• Change the safety depth, create green “Go-areas” and assign property “safe” – warning when leaving area

• Save the user chart with the name of the port and the MDR depth; San Francisco 15m.

page 45

San Fransisco Bay, Safety contour 15m


Safety depth 15m

Display soundings


Create user chart

Assign red colour

Assign “dangerous”


Create safe area

Assign green colour

Assign “safe”


Create route

difference in how to display soundings

• This workaround requires freedom to set and display safety depth.

• Even less than current draft – it is used for planning purposes, and the vessel may use height of tide.

• The workaround is further improved if certain sounding may be suppressed

• “display sounding only up to _ _ m”

Today only few of the ECDIS software are capable of easily performing this workaround

page 51

Safety depth set to 12.9m

Soundings more than 13m suppressed

Safety in an ECDIS

Safe navigation in an ECDIS is intended to be based on 2 key features

• Safety contourSafety contourSafety contourSafety contour

• Separating Navigable waters from Non-navigable

• RouteRouteRouteRoute

• Route editing

• Route checking

• Route monitoringpage 56

Chart work

ECDIS route limitations

Currently most ECDIS only allow parallel sides of the route corridor.

This is a serious limitation that needs workarounds

page 57

ECDIS limitations

ECDIS limitations

User generated “No-Go area”

ECDIS limitations

User generated “safety distance”

ECDIS limitations

Result – an un-necessary narrow

route corridor”

ECDIS limitations

When really – this is how wide

the route should be!

ECDIS limitations - workaround

The work-around…


The missing piece!

ECDIS limitations

Most of the TSS in the world do

not have parallel sides…

ECDIS limitations


The officers should be encouraged to use the full

width of the TSS lane and precautionary area.

Route

The future route function of an ECDIS

• The routeThe routeThe routeThe route

• Is the shortest safe way to the destination

• The corridorThe corridorThe corridorThe corridor

• The corridor defines the boundaries of “normal”

• If you end up here due to traffic or else you are still in the safe zone and there is no need to “call Master”

• Polygon sides

page 70

English channel – towards Dunkirk

Route

• Desired features of RouteDesired features of RouteDesired features of RouteDesired features of Route

• Different XTD for port and Stbd side

• Non-parallel sides (polygon)

• Multi-route (when possible to go on both sides of an island etc.)

• Features to simplify supportive route planningFeatures to simplify supportive route planningFeatures to simplify supportive route planningFeatures to simplify supportive route planning

• Visible XTD

• Graphical editing of XTD

• Graphical editing of turn radius.

• Lock of previous leg when changing WP of adjoining legpage 77

Rickmers conclusion

In our opinion

Passage planning in an ECDIS can not depend on safety contour and route alone.

Workarounds are needed

These workarounds will be helped by if the ECDIS software has certain features in way of displaying depths and drawing polygons.

page 78

…the end.

Jörgen Strandberg

Rickmers Maritime Services

[email protected]

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