Project: Sharing Navigation Events from a Ship-as-a-sensor Network
There is no need to demonstrate the economic importance of maritime trade. Still, the level of safety and security currently observed even on the most critical sea lanes is far from satisfactory: piracy and armed robbery attacks are endemic in several maritime basins (Gulf of Guinea, Horn of Africa and Indian Ocean, Malacca Strait, South China Sea); sailors and fishermen perish at sea by the thousand every year; serious accidents occur frequently, when ships hit floating debris such as lost containers (more than a thousand every year) or timber, or wound surfacing whales. In short, the high seas reCO perilous._x000D__x000D_The SHARES consortium has identified several systemic root causes, directly explaining these shortfalls:_x000D_- A Ship Master reCOs extremely isolated whist sailing beyond the coastal horizon: he will not receive the latest update of the ECDIS maritime charts (they came on a CD before his departure several weeks ago), reducing the benefit from the move toward e-navigation; the warning reports he might receive from anti-piracy centres (IMB, ReCAAP etc.) reCOs very general and do not possibly “zoom-in” on the areas he will transit in the next hours. While airplanes are in constant liaison with the ground centres, providing them highly secure end-to-end flight management, ship masters have to stand on their own feet, as soon they are off the harbour of their departure's VTS._x000D_- The ship's primary sensor is the navigation radar, designed to cover the full horizon and detect large ships before they are possibly seen; by design, this radar is blind for the first couple of miles (blanking zone) and cannot detect low Radar Cross-Section targets such as small wooden or rubber boats, floating debris or surfacing marine mammals; and, should a man fall overboard, there is just no sensor on board to help finding him when visibility is poor._x000D_- The interpretation of events is difficult except for those with great experience of a particular sea lane: the watch officer is often has difficulty in interpreting the boat contacts which he might get from his navigation radar, if they are not associated with an AIS; the local context of small boats fishing and trading is not documented; the reduced manning of modern ships does not leave anyone with the time to investigate further and to analyse the ship's context and to anticipate adverse events. At the same time, the developing shore-based Information Fusion Centres (proven successful against illegal activities in the Malacca Strait, and expected to develop in the framework of the EU Critical Maritime Routes Programme) are today missing the essential context data, perceived by the transiting vessels, to augment their operational situational awareness and better assist the ship voyage optimisation. _x000D_The SHARES project will allow us to enter a new era where each modern cargo or fishing vessel is possibly “sharing navigation events from a ship-as-a-sensor network” , simultaneously with other ships in the vicinity, with the developing Shore Navigation Assistance Centres, and with the ship owners. _x000D__x000D_Specifically, the technological components to be matured and integrated by the Ps of SHARES will include:_x000D_- a new low cost solid state short-range and high sensitivity radar, able to perceive the low reflexive elements which could possibly be in the vicinity of the ship (small wooden or rubber boats, man overboard, floating debris, ice-bergs etc.), together with the proper Radar Event Recognition (RER) Software (filtering, clutter rejection, tracking)._x000D_- a local Events Recognition Management (ERM) Software, to provide to the watch officer, an already analysed situational picture ,without creating additional workload._x000D_- an improved two-way machine-to-machine communication protocol to connect this ERM to other ships similarly equipped and to any private or official shore centre (shipping company HQ, anti-piracy centres...) whilst optimising the satcom connection demand, (still reCOing costly), whilst switching to cheaper ground transmission channels when available,_x000D_- the matching shore-station components to interface the various ship's ERMs and the global situation awareness built by the various shore centres, from their specific perspective (anti-piracy, search and rescue, anti-pollution, fishery control...)._x000D_All these components will be enabled by an advanced SHARES Middleware, supporting the seamless exchange protocol implementing this global sensor to ERM, ship -to-ship and ship-to-shore connectivity, whilst overcoming vendor specificities._x000D__x000D_In Annex a graphical representation of project's concept and architecture.
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Acronym
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SHARES
(Reference Number: 8191)
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Duration
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01/06/2014 - 31/05/2016
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Project Topic
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SHARES will enable "the ship-as-a-sensor" and the sharing of navigational safety/security concerns, including detected events (oil, piracy,ice...)with other vessels at sea and with shore centres, through unprecedented connectivity. Innovation is in radar, communication, architecture and middleware.
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Network
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Eurostars
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Call
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Eurostars Cut-Off 10
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Project partner
