ECDIS

• Electronic chart display systems


  Computerized systems that can display all information provided on a paper chart together with information from many other sources such as GPS, radar, etc.
• Presenting navigational chart information on radar displays and/or on special navigational displays is not a new idea
• In the 1970s, several manufacturers offered systems with possibilities for presenting limited navigational chart information superimposed on the radar display or on a separate display
• Due to technical limitations and high prices, even the most sophisticated of these early systems were only delivered in small numbers
• One of the early systems providing limited chart information on the radar display was the Cassette One Voyage system
• Another system with this capability was the Mitsubishi Tonik system
• Information displayed by early integrated navigation systems

  • Preset route
  • Own ship and its speed vector
  • Mountain symbol
  • Lighthouse
  • Impul coastline
  • Shallow area borderline
  • Range marker
  • Other ship and its speed vector
• The early integrated navigation systems used various positioning methods, such as the Navy Navigation Satellite System, Decca, Loran, radar, astronavigation, and dead reckoning
• The more advanced of these earlier integrated navigation systems combined position information from several sources
• These early systems provided great assistance to navigation on many ships and made the navigators' job easier and more interesting
• However, if used by untrained or unqualified personnel, these systems posed a threat to the ship, crew, and environment
• The complexity of today's systems poses a threat in itself, and more attention and resources need to be put into the human-machine interface field to make the systems more usable for navigators
• The International Hydrographic Organization set up a working group to develop specifications for chart symbols and color definitions

  1988
• An international standard for exchange of maritime digital electronic chart information, known as S57, was established


  1992
• ECDIS (Electronic Chart Display and Information System)


  A computerized system with the ability to display all information provided on a paper chart together with information from many other sources such as GPS, radar, etc.
• Although several manufacturers produce ECDIS systems and ECDIS has been around for some time, relatively few ships are equipped with such systems
• The number of ships equipped with ECDIS is expected to increase rapidly in the near future as the availability of digital charts improves and the charts become less expensive
• Another negative factor was that ECDIS did not legally replace the paper chart before the summer of 1999
• The human-machine interface and user-friendliness of the early ECDIS systems is not what the mariner wants and is likely to accept today
• Operators who feel that their ECDIS system is not user-friendly and safe to use should let the manufacturer know about their experiences
• Information that may be displayed on ECDIS

  • Geographical chart information
  • Lights
  • Buoys
  • Leading lines
  • Traffic lanes
  • Special areas
  • Hydrographic office information
  • Local chart information
  • User notes
  • Manufacturers information
  • Chart work
  • Planned route
  • Bearing lines
  • Range rings
  • Own ship position and velocity vector
  • Ship's head and rate of turn
  • Past track
  • Navigational warnings and alarms
  • Fix accuracy
  • Position check from secondary positioning system
  • Ship handling options based on ship characteristics
  • Alphanumeric navigation information
  • Information from radar and other sensors
• The aim of the presentation design and presentation standards for ECDIS should be to provide as much diversity and flexibility as possible, as long as the system remains simple and straightforward to use
• ECDIS flexibility of presentation

  • Displaying or removing various types of chart and non-chart information
  • Selecting standard chart display or detail display and simplified symbols or full symbols
  • Using cursor interrogation for further details
  • Overlaying or removing radar video or radar target information
  • Overlaying or removing various other sensor information
  • Changing the scale orientation of the display
  • Selecting true motion or relative motion
  • Changing the screen layout
  • Giving navigation and chart warnings
  • Graphical presentation of computer evaluation of grounding danger
  • Graphical presentation of collision danger
• ECDIS has an important capability of detecting the need for warnings and alarms
• Examples of ECDIS warnings


  • Planned route infringes the safety contour or enters a prohibited area
  • Displays over scale, but more detailed information is available
• Examples of ECDIS alarms

  • The ship's projected position infringes the safety contour or a hazard to navigation
  • The ship's course made good poses a hazard to navigation
• Non-hydrographic office information should not obscure chart information, and information ahead of the ship along the planned route should have priority over information astern of the ship
• Navigators hope and believe that tomorrow's ECDIS will be more user-friendly than the systems today
• A clear distinction between the need to have and the nice to have functions and features must be maintained
• Manufacturers should consult specialists, such as mariners with relevant experience and human factor specialists, to improve the human-machine interface of ECDIS
• Performance standard for a nectar system


  Set out by the International Maritime Organization
• Electronic navigational charts (ENC)

  • Must be produced by an authorized hydrographic office or a government institution
  • Must be produced according to the IHO S-57 standard
• IHO S-57


  • Transverse standard for ENC information
  • Used to transfer data between hydrographic offices and mariners
  • Contains the ENC product specification and lays out rules for producing an electronic chart
• IHO S-58


  • Contains validation checks that must be performed on ENC data before release to mariners
  • Tests to ensure data is accurate and will not cause system malfunction
• IHO S-63


  • Governs the security of ENC information
  • Enables protection of ENC information from copying
  • Ensures data sent to mariners is authenticated and from an official source
• IHO S-52


  Contains standards for symbols, line styles and colors used in the display of ENC information on ECDIS systems