NAVIGATIONAL EQUIPMENTS

K.R.GUPTA INDIAN MARITIME UNIVERSITY

AI S

Automatic Identification System

AIS
y The International Maritime Organization's (IMO)

International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) requires AIS to be fitted aboard international voyaging ships with gross tonnage (GT) of 300 or more tons, and all passenger ships regardless of size.

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AIS is a ship borne transponder system capable of broadcasting continuously, using the VHF marine band, information about the ship.

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Such info could include: Ship identification data, ie. Ship name, call sign, length, breadth, draught, dwt etc. Type of cargo carried and whether it was hazardous in nature Course and maneuvering data Position to GPS data

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y AIS Ship borne Navigational AID

Objectives:

Safety of life at Sea; Safety and efficiency of navigation; Coastal surveillance  Protection of marine environment.
Range: 20-50 nm depending on antenna height.

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y An AIS System requires y GPS or DGPS receiver y a VHF Transmitter y two VHF TDMA receivers y a VHF DSC Receiver y a standard marine electronic communications

connection to the ships display system.

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Frequencies for AIS transmission

VHF Ch88B ( 161.025 Mhz) VHF Ch87B ( 161.975 Mhz)

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y 2250 time slots established every 60s for each AIS

channel.
y Each transponder self-allocates time slots for its

position reports and such reports occur at time intervals that correspond to the traffic situations. (SOTDMA) y SELF ORGANIZED TIME DIVISION MULTIPLE ACCESS- SOTDMA

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Ships data content y Static info: Set on installation  Name, Call Sign  IMO, MMSI No.  Length, Beam,  Type of ship,  Location of Position fixing Antenna.

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Ships data content Dynamic info: Automatically updated y Position, UTC Time, y COG, SOG, Heading, y ROT(if available) Manual entry: y Navigational Status-(under way, at anchor, NUC, RIATM, Moored, Aground etc.)

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Ships data content Voyage related info
y Draft, y Hazardous Cargo- DG/HS/MP y Destination and ETA, y Route Plan( masters discretion) y No. of persons on board.

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Ships data content Safety-related messages y Short messages up to 158 characters y Either to specified ship or all ships. Relevant to safety of navigation, Danger messages- as short as possible. Normally sent by VTS y Test messages could also be sent using this feature.

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Activation: y Always when under way or at anchor. (reduce VHF power to 1W at anchor, berth) y If Master feels it might compromise the safety/security of the ship, then can be switched off. y Eg: piracy areas. This should be recorded in ships log-book with the reason.

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OOWs duties w.r.t AIS Manual input data at start of voyage and whenever changes occur Draft, Hazardous Cargo (DG/HS/MP) Destination and ETA, Route plan(WP), correct navigational status and Safety related messages, if any.

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OOWs duties w.r.t AIS y Check the ships static info is correct and up-todate, once per voyage or once per month, whichever is shorter. Data can be changed only on Masters orders. y OOW should periodically check the dynamic infoy Positions given according to WGS 84, SOG and sensor information.

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OOWs duties w.r.t AIS y Should carryout regular routine checks during a voyage to validate the accuracy of information being transmitted.
y The frequency of these checks would need to be

increased in coastal waters.

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OOWs duties w.r.t AIS Graphical Display Sleeping target- only presence of a vessel indicated Activated target-vector, heading and ROT Selected target- CPA and TCPA values also. Lost target preset range- alarm will be given

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Report rate: y Static and voyage related data every 6 min or on request (AIS responds automatically without user action-Polling) Dynamic info dependent on speed and course alteration y At Anchor: 3 min y 0-14 kts : 12 s 0-14 kts and changing course: 4 s y 14-23kts: 6s / 2s y Ship >23kts: 3s / 2s

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Limitations of AIS Only SOLAS class vessels fitted with AIS phased implementation (till July 2010) AIS switched off by Masters discretion Military vessels excluded No redundancy (back-up for failure). Dangers of floating objects-only detected by radar. Risk of transmission of erroneous information Accuracy of AIS info received is only as good as the accuracy of the AIS information transmitted.

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Advantages over Radar No target swapping No blind sectors Not affected by weather(radar targets lost in sea clutter, rain clutter etc.) Real time data (No delay for data in radar). Identification of targets with additional details.

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y Note: When entering any data manually,

consideration should be given to the confidentiality of the information.

y CPA and TCPA details are computed by the

AIS from the data received from other vessels and displayed in own screen.

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The ability to broadcast navigation aid positions has also created the concept of Virtual AIS, also known as Synthetic AIS , Pseudo AIS or Artificial AIS. The terms can mean two things; in the first case, an AIS transmission describes the position of physical marker but the signal itself originates from a transmitter located elsewhere. For example, an on-shore base station might broadcast the position of ten floating channel markers, each of which is too small to contain a transmitter itself. In the second case, it can mean AIS transmissions that indicate a marker which does not exist physically, or a concern which is not visible (i.e. submerged rocks, or a wrecked ship). Although such virtual aids would only be visible to AIS equipped ships, the low cost of maintaining them could lead to their usage when physical markers are unavailable

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y Search and rescue y For coordinating resources on scene of marine

search & rescue operation, it is important to know the position and navigation status of ships in the vicinity of the ship or person in distress. Here AIS can provide additional information and awareness of the resources for on scene operation, even though AIS range is limited to VHF radio range.

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y Search and rescue y The AIS standard also envisioned the possible use on

SAR Aircraft, and included a message (AIS Message 9) for aircraft to report position. To aid SAR vessels and aircraft in locating people in distress a standard for an AIS-SART AIS Search and Rescue Transmitter is currently being developed by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the standard is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2008 and AISSARTs will be available on the market from 2009.