For high-precision real-time kinematics (RTK) and safety-of-life Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), it is critical to track the carrier reliably without interruptions. We develop hardware-oriented robust on-line cycle slip and loss detection logic for a single-frequency stand-alone aviation receiver. The moving average statistics of time-differenced frequency-lock loop (FLL) are shown to provide a robust and fixed detection threshold for cycle loss detection. A Monte-Carlo simulation shows that the detection performance remains robust when aviation dynamics from minimum operational performance standard (MOPS) are added to a simulated strong scintillation.

The paper addresses the issue of planning emergency manoeuvres and re-planning ship trajectories in case of unpredicted target behaviour. It introduces two methods. The first is responsible for monitoring other ships parameters, estimating the probability of illegal target behaviour and re-planning own trajectory in case of unpredicted events. The second is a visualization tool that enables the navigator to assess collision risk in an encounter situation and choose a collision avoidance manoeuvre if necessary. This tool is based on the Collision Threat Parameters Area display and offers new features: fuzzy sectors of forbidden speed and course values and the possibility to use any given ship domain. Both methods are fast enough to be applied in the real-time decision-support system.

Most of the existing typical ship domains have been comprehensively reviewed and classified. Most of these ship domains are described in a geometrical manner that is difficult to apply to practices and simulations in marine traffic engineering. According to different types of geometrical ship domains, we have proposed mathematical models, based on which a unified analytical framework has been established. It is feasible and practical for the analytical models to be applied to the assessment of navigational safety, collision avoidance and trajectory planning, etc. Finally, some computer simulations and comparative studies of the proposed domain model have been presented and the simulation results show that the uniform analytical framework for ship domains is effective and identical to the original geometrical ones. It should be noted that the analytical domain models could be directly applied in any collision risk, collision avoidance or VTS system while the geometrical ones would be more illustrative but less practical or analytical.

Remote, or shore-based, pilotage is an issue of some interest to the maritime community. When discussed, it is often in the context of new technology that in one way or the other is supposed to enhance piloting and enable ships to be piloted from the shore. This paper takes a different approach and instead looks at piloting as control of a complex system. Such an approach makes it possible to identify a fundamental problem with remote pilotage. The problem, along with possible solutions, is presented and discussed.

This paper builds on prior research into the application of particle swarm optimisation to autonomous vehicle control in search roles. It examines the use of naturally inspired search strategies to enhance the performance of groups of sensor-based vehicles in applications where there is no knowledge a priori regarding target presence, location, distribution or behaviour (movement). This paper first briefly reviews existing ethological research into search strategies in the natural world, identifying three types of random walk, two multi-phase strategies and two species-specific strategies for further investigation. Experiments are then performed within a simulation environment to compare the performance of naturally inspired strategies with deterministic patterns and random movement, when searching for both static and dynamic targets. Results indicate that performance improvements can be realised, provided that critical relationships within the application domain broadly match those existing in the underlying natural metaphor.

Shipborne AIS provides independent traffic information to the bridge lookout on duty. This study examines the effect of AIS enhanced bridge lookout operation by means of a ship simulator. The two groups of participants, all qualified British deep sea deck officers, undertook identical simulation scenarios, but one group had the AIS on and the other did not. Significant differences were found between the two groups in reading the targets' privileged status and handling the head-on situation. Those with AIS information were found to avoid possible collisions faster than the group for whom AIS information was not available.

This paper traces the birth and formation of Vessel Traffic Services, examines the rapid growth of such schemes worldwide and notes the tendency for mandatory ship reporting systems to be operated from VTS centres. Questions are asked about this tendency and thoughts are provided.

One of the basic tasks in shipping is to ensure safe navigation of vessels. The concept of the ship domain is of major importance in the assessment of a navigational situation and the avoidance of ship collisions. It is difficult to determine a ship domain as its shape and size depend on a number of factors. One question to be answered before the determination of the ship domain is which method to use: statistical, analytic, or expert method using artificial intelligence tools; other questions are connected with domain interpretation. The authors have analyzed the ship domain as a criterion for the assessment of ship navigational safety in an encounter situation in the open sea. The research results are used to answer some of the questions.

Part 2 includes definitions of the ship domain and ship fuzzy domain. Part 3, in turn, presents methods of their determination as well as relevant questions. The results of the authors' research, described in Part 4, make up a basis for the determination of the domain and ship fuzzy domain. These have been determined with the so-called dynamic domains as a point of departure. The criteria of ship domain and closest point of approach are compared and discussed. Encounters of various size ships are considered in Part 5. The research and its results are described. Both ship domains and ship fuzzy domains of encountering ships are analyzed. Then, conclusions have been formulated in relation to the effect of the sizes of encountering ships on the shapes and sizes of their domains. Final conclusions are given in Part 6.

Navigation users will significantly benefit from the combined use of GPS and GLONASS due to the improved reliability, availability and accuracy especially in an environment with limited satellite visibility, such as in urban or mountainous areas. But in such situations the visible satellite number is often still insufficient to obtain a position solution even if both GPS and GLONASS measurements are used. This is partly because at least five visible satellites are required to determine a position due to an offset between the timescales of GPS and GLONASS to be solved. In this paper, an algorithm has been proposed to obtain a position solution with only four visible GPS/GLONASS satellites. In addition to the data from IGS stations, an experiment was also conducted to assess the proposed algorithm. The results indicate that using the proposed algorithm with only four GPS/GLONASS satellites a position solution could be obtained at the cost of a slight accuracy loss.

A navigation integration processing scheme, called the strong tracking unscented Kalman filter (STUKF), is based on the combination of an unscented Kalman filter (UKF) and a strong tracking filter (STF). The UKF employs a set of sigma points by deterministic sampling, such that the linearization process is not necessary, and therefore the error caused by linearization as in the traditional extended Kalman filter (EKF) can be avoided. As a type of adaptive filter, the STF is essentially a nonlinear smoother algorithm that employs suboptimal multiple fading factors, in which the softening factors are involved. In order to resolve the shortcoming in traditional approach for selecting the softening factor through personal experience or computer simulation, a novel scheme called the fuzzy strong tracking unscented Kalman filter (FSTUKF) is presented where the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive System (FLAS) is incorporated for determining the softening factor. The proposed FSTUKF algorithm shows promising results in estimation accuracy when applied to the integrated navigation system design, as compared to the EKF, UKF and STUKF approaches.

Armed with the axiom that the best way to avoid collision at sea is for one ship to pass under the stern of the other, this paper revisits the early steering and sailing rules. It conjectures that the port tack rule was an antidote to the sailing ship's imperative to gain ground to windward even at the cost of risk of collision. It draws attention to evidence that with early steamships, free of the port tack rule, one altered course to pass astern of the other and that, in fact, the one to alter was invariably the faster of the two. It traces, to the want of prescribed navigation lights, the introduction of the port helm/right rudder rule for all ships by day and by night. It records how with the introduction of prescribed lights the port tack rule, though in a form proposed by France, was re-introduced for sailing ships together with an analogous crossing rule for streamers. The paper concludes that the port tack rule is redundant in this collision conscious age and that its objective of motivating one ship to alter course can be achieved by making both ships to blame in the event of a collision. It is submitted that these lessons offer the e-navigator a method of avoiding collision at sea applicable in all situations; the only technical requirement for its safe conduct is for each ship to be able to tell instantly and accurately at any moment how the other ship is heading.

The January 2009 issue of the Journal of Navigation included a paper (John Wilde Crosbie 2009) entitled, “Revisiting the lessons of the early steering and sailing rules for an e-navigation age.” Following a description of the development of the COLREGS from the early 19th century, he concluded that the current steering and sailing rules should be replaced by a single rule more suited to modern conditions. This might take the form of a rule stating that a vessel taking action to avoid collision should not pass ahead of the other vessel. Such a rule would require a radical change in the philosophy of collision avoidance at sea, and evidence is required that it would be both effective and acceptable by mariners. Radar simulator experiments, conducted by the author some years ago in another context, suggest that this might be the case. An analysis of the experimental results and some conclusions are reported in this paper. The author recommends that further trials, specifically designed to test the Crosbie proposals, would be desirable.

In the work package ‘Integrated Positioning’ of the Ubiquitous Cartography for Pedestrian Navigation project (UCPNAVI) alternative location methods using active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) are investigated for positioning of pedestrians in areas where no GNSS position determination is possible due to obstruction of the satellite signals. In most common RFID applications, positioning is performed using cell-based positioning. RFID tags can be installed at active landmarks (i.e., known locations) in the surroundings and a user equipped with an RFID reader can be positioned using Cell of Origin (CoO). The positioning accuracy, however, depends on the size of the cell defined by the maximum range of the signal. Using long range RFID for positioning the cell size can be quite large, i.e., around 20 m. Therefore, the paper proposes two new methods for positioning, i.e., trilateration and location fingerprinting based on received signal strength indication (RSSI) if more than one RFID tag is visible. The trilateration approach is based on the deduction of ranges to the RFID tags from RSSI. An iterative approach to model the signal propagation will be introduced, i.e., the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) indoor location model that can be simplified to a logarithmic model, and a simple polynomial model is employed for the signal strength to range conversion. In a second attempt, location fingerprinting based on RSSI is investigated. In this case, RSSI is measured in a training phase at known locations inside the building and stored in a database. In the positioning phase these measurements are used together with the current measurements to obtain the current location of the user. For the estimation of the current location different approaches are employed and tested, i.e., a direction-based approach, a tag-based approach, a direction-tag-based approach and a heading-based approach. Using trilateration or fingerprinting positioning accuracies on the one to a few metres level can usually be achieved. The concept and the iterative approach of the different methods and test results are discussed in this paper.

Low-cost OEM GPS receivers with the capability of tracking the carrier phase are now used for many applications in the navigation and tracking arena. These receivers provide flexibility in applying carrier smoothing algorithms to improve the pseudorange positioning accuracy and even perform carrier-phase differential positioning. In this study, the performance of a low-cost single-frequency OEM GPS receiver for high-accuracy kinematic positioning in marine applications is investigated. As a first step, a set of zero baseline tests were carried out to evaluate the performance of the GPS receivers. In the second stage, a kinematic test was conducted at the Halic (Golden Horn), Istanbul. The results show that kinematic positioning with centimetre level accuracy can be achieved by the low-cost OEM GPS receiver in differential mode, suggesting its use in a variety of kinematic applications. The use of such a system could considerably reduce the cost of the GPS receiver and the total project costs of many applications.

The ranging accuracy provided by pseudorange-only techniques is usually no better than a few metres when no differential corrections are applied. Carrier-phase algorithms, on the other hand, yield higher-precision estimates – down to a few millimetres – but are prone to ambiguities difficult to resolve. An easier-to-implement method, using single-frequency pseudorange measurements only, is presented. It allows for a decimetre-level relative positioning accuracy. Results, derived from the GPS Relative Positioning Equations, are validated with actual satellite data from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission.

Efficient marine navigation through obstructions is still one of the many problems faced by the mariner. Many accidents can be traced to human error, recently increased traffic densities and the average cruise speed of ships impedes the collision avoidance decision making process further in the sense that decisions have to be made in reduced time. It seems logical that the decision making process be computerised and automated as a step forward to reduce the risk of collision. This article reviews the development of collision avoidance techniques and path planning for ships, particularly when engaged in close range encounters. In addition, previously published works have been categorised and their shortcomings highlighted in order to identify the ‘state of the art’ and issues in close range marine navigation.

With more satellite systems becoming available there is currently a need for Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (RAIM) to exclude multiple outliers. While the single outlier test can be applied iteratively, in the field of statistics robust methods are preferred when multiple outliers exist. This study compares the outlier test and numerous robust methods with simulated GPS measurements to identify which methods have the greatest ability to correctly exclude outliers. It was found that no method could correctly exclude outliers 100% of the time. However, for a single outlier the outlier test achieved the highest rates of correct exclusion followed by the MM-estimator and the L1-norm. As the number of outliers increased MM-estimators and the L1-norm obtained the highest rates of normal exclusion, which were up to ten percent higher than the outlier test.

The troposphere affects electromagnetic signal propagation causing signal path bending and the alteration of the electromagnetic wave velocity. Tropospheric delay can introduce a considerable error in satellite positioning if it is not properly estimated. The GPS signal delay can vary from 2 to 20 m depending on the elevation angles between the receiver and the satellite. Two basic types of delay prediction models exist. The first use surface meteorological parameters to estimate the value of the tropospheric delay, and the other models that do not require real-time meteorological input use average and seasonal variation data related to the receiver's latitude and day-of-year. This paper compares the performance of both types of model over a period of one year, comprising all seasons, to verify their accuracy over a longer period. The Saastamoinen model, known as one of the best performing prediction models, was taken as a reference and the global EGNOS model was used to check how the global estimates of the yearly averages of the meteorological parameters and their related seasonal variations comply with the real-time surface parameters.

It is well known that vessels operating in the vicinity of a lateral bank experience a significant yaw moment and sway force. This bank effect has a major impact on the manoeuvring properties of the vessel and must therefore be properly understood to ensure the safe passage of the vessel through the restricted waterway. Accordingly, this study performs a series of simulations using commercial FLOW-3D® computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software and the KRISO 3600 TEU container ship model to examine the effects of the vessel speed and distance to bank on the magnitude and time-based variation of the yaw angle and sway force. The results show that for a given vessel speed, the yaw angle and sway force increase as the distance to bank reduces, while for a given distance between the ship and the bank, the yaw angle and sway force increase with an increasing vessel speed. In addition, it is shown that even when a vessel advances at a very low speed, it experiences a significant bank effect when operating in close vicinity to the bank. Overall, the results presented in this study confirm the feasibility of the CFD modelling approach as a means of obtaining detailed insights into the bank effect without the need for time-consuming and expensive ship trials.

The new millennium brought an asymptotic interest in space technology. Besides existing operational global positioning systems i.e. GPS and GLONASS, another two have already emerged: GALILEO and Compass/Beidou. Alternatives to GPS imposed the GNSS concept, which has crystallized in a short time. The true reasoning of this excessive need for positioning information is beyond the scope of this paper; instead, an analysis of orbital behaviour of GPS, GLONASS and GALILEO is conducted. GNSS orbits have similar characteristics permitting us to encompass them under the term Medium Earth Orbits (MEO). However, small differences between mean orbital elements of the three systems produce a significantly different reaction of their satellites' orbits to the natural perturbing factors. This study analyzes the three space segment characteristics, introduces the analytical method used to evaluate variations of orbital elements under the most significant perturbing influences and offers a broad comparative image of the dynamic behaviour of the three GNSS constellations.