Dalian Ada Ship & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd.
Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) is another great technological revolution in ship navigation after radar/ARPA, and has developed into a new type of ship navigation system and decision support system. It can not only continuously provide ship position, but also provide various information related to navigation, effectively preventing various dangers. At present, there are more than 200,000 ships worldwide equipped with electronic charts. With the gradual completion of national official electronic charts (ENC), the emergence of standard ECDIS and the recognition of IMO, ECDIS will completely replace paper charts in the next 10 years and become a comprehensive means of marine information processing in the 21st century.
The reason why electronic charts are highly valued is that they have advantages that traditional paper charts cannot match. The electronic chart system can automatically design routes, monitor heading and track, automatically store the ship's track, replay historical voyages, automatically alert during navigation (such as deviation, entering dangerous areas, etc.), quickly query various information (such as hydrology, ports, tides, currents, etc.), real-time display of ship dynamics (such as refreshing ship position, speed, heading every second), overlaying the echo image of radar/ARPA on the chart, and automatic correction of thousands of charts in just a few minutes.
Development Background and Basic Composition
The development of electronic charts has roughly gone through three stages:
1) Equivalent to paper charts. From the late 1970s to 1984, people mainly wanted to reduce the volume and reduce the labor intensity of chart operations. Therefore, they only digitized paper charts and stored them in computers.
2) Functional exploration stage. By 1986, people began to explore the various potentials of electronic charts. For example, displaying ship position, route design, ship speed, heading and other ship parameters, alarms, etc., on electronic charts.
3) Navigation information system stage. Electronic charts are used as the core of navigation information, including the improvement of electronic chart databases, interfaces and combinations with various equipment and systems such as radar, positioning instruments, log, depth sounder, GPS, VTS, AIS, etc. The important role of multi-functional shipborne electronic chart systems in ensuring ship navigation safety has been recognized by IMO and IHO (International Hydrographic Organization) and many navigation experts. In July 1986, IMO and IHO established the ECDIS coordination group, and various standards and specifications for ECDIS were continuously established and improved, and various high-performance ECDIS products were continuously introduced.
ECDIS consists of four basic parts: the main computer system, the electronic chart database, the input sensor, and the output terminal equipment. The main computer is the core of the electronic chart, and it needs to complete a large amount of calculation and logical reasoning. A very important point is the processing of computer graphics. Electronic Navigational Charts (ENC) are officially authorized for issuance. In addition to displaying electronic charts, ECDIS should also display the ship's position, speed, heading, and relevant information about surrounding targets. Therefore, the system needs to access various navigation sensors and other information sensors.
System terminal equipment includes graphic displays, printers, and track recorders. It displays or outputs data of various navigation elements on the chart, the content of human-computer dialogue, warning information, hotkeys and menus used by navigation personnel, etc.
Development Trend of Electronic Chart Display and Information System
At present, the performance standards, chart display specifications, and data standards of ECDIS have been established, paving the way for its legalization and popularization. The key issues to be solved in the future are: to quickly establish a global ENC and chart correction service network; to expand the standard functions of ECDIS so that it has intelligent characteristics; to integrate with high-precision positioning systems, radar collision avoidance systems, ship communication systems, and rudder control systems, etc., to assist in making ship operation decisions, and at the same time, it can control the ship to sail on the optimal route in the most economical way, improving shipping efficiency.
At present, some maritime technology development companies in the world have connected their ECDIS with navigation systems, ARPA, autopilots, etc., forming a so-called integrated bridge system. The main idea is to comprehensively process information from these navigational instruments and provide navigators with an integrated information environment so that they can quickly make ship operation decisions and improve navigation safety. Letting machines replace navigators to complete this work, reducing the possibility of accidents caused by human factors and reducing the number of crew members, has become a topic of concern in the shipping industry today.
ECDIS can realize ship navigation in inland waterways. Due to the particularity of the inland waterway navigation environment, higher requirements are placed on positioning, especially in lock areas, bridge areas, and narrow river sections. Under the premise of high-precision DGPS and dynamic electronic river charts, high-precision and high-reliability navigation can be realized in inland waterways, thus bringing considerable economic benefits in terms of safety, dredging, and waterway management.
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