Integrated Bridge Systems ‑ Turnkey solutions from one supplier

GERMAN MARINE EQUIPMENT | NAVIGATION AND COMMUNICATION Integrated Bridge Systems – Turnkey solutions from one supplier RAYTHEON ANSCHÜTZ Every third new ship built today is outfitted with an Integrated Bridge System, tendency increasing. Although according to the rules of the IMO, the one-man bridge watch is still only permitted during the day and under good visibility conditions, more and more shipowners are specifying Integrated Bridge Systems for their newbuildings. Not so much reduction of personnel is in the foreground, but rather additional accident avoidance safety. A s early as the beginning of the 90’s, Ergonomic considerations mainly affect operating philosophy realized for the first DNV (Det Norske Veritas, Norway) three aspects: the arrangement of wor- time two years ago by Raytheon Anschütz was the first classification society to king places, the instrumentation and the brought the decisive breakthrough: From define how an „Integrated System“ should operability of the equipment itself. The the gyro compass to the handwheel and look: Under the designation W1 a new watch officer spends a large part of his autopilot on up to radar and ECDIS, all classification was developed for vessels bridge watch at one central place of work units have standardized key fields, displays with one-man bridge systems, with de- and needs an all-round view from this and menus. All operating units are self-ex- tailed regulations for ergonomics, instru- position, if possible without blind spots. planatory. The new operating concept was mentation, documentation and training. This means: setting up the work place in a made possible by the fact that Raytheon The one-man bridge according to DNV- sort of bay window which minimizes the Anschütz now develops and manufactures NAUT-AW is viewed by shipowners today number of blind spots; furthermore there all major components itself in Kiel: gyro as being synonymous with a high standard should be no additional rooms or stair- compasses, rate-of-turn indicators, auto- of safety. wells in the rear area of the bridge. Nowa- pilots, steering gears, rudder position in- days a good number of shipyards decide dicators, RADAR‘s and ECDIS. upon the navigation system first and then construct the bridge to fit it. The proper arrangement of the instruments is deter- mined in agreement with the shipowner and also conforms to detailed regulations which prescribe which equipment and information must be available at which work places. DNV requires, for example, the work stations for the NAUT-AW set- up. The installation place and maximum distance of the instrument from the watch officer’s seat depends on the function of NautoConning: All navigation data and the equipment: Some devices must be alarms at a glance operated from a sitting position; for others it is sufficient for the watch officer to stand High-accuracy track control up to operate them. In the planning phase Developing the concept as a whole results Uniform operation for all Anschütz for building a ship, the classification soci- in a number of functional advantages, navigation devices ety already checks the arrangement of the for example track control and the central desks, all-round view and arrangement of alarm monitoring. Raytheon Anschütz now Under the name BridgeControl® Raytheon the instruments. For each vessel a special offers a track control system which is able Marine in Kiel, in close co-operation with individual trial run of the bridge is carried to guide a ship fully automatically along a classification societies, shipowners and out after the regular trial run. During this track with an accuracy of 20 meters (based shipyards, has developed a new total con- Det Norske Veritas (DNV), unique to a on a position accuracy of six meters). Se- cept for the one-man bridge which is based classification society, not only checks the veral years of experience with the track pi- on five principles: function of the instruments but also the lot NautoPilot 2035 on various types and Ergonomics safety and convenience of all work pro- sizes of vessels and under differing load Automation of navigation cesses of the bridge watch. Therefore each conditions have shown that this accuracy Monitoring one-man bridge according to NAUT-AW is is maintained not only on straight route Safety and redundancy an individual tailor-made system. For the sections but also during the track change. System support. ergonomics of bridge systems, the uniform The track control system, also called „Au- 140 Spezial VDMA | Schiff & Hafen | Juni 2007 | Nr. 06 quire an automatic change-over in case of failure (gyro compass), sometimes manual selection (autopilot). Here the indepen- dently functioning individual components such as RADAR, ECDIS, gyro compass, au- topilot can easily be doubled or even tri- pled and integrated into the whole system as modules. Does failure of one function lead to fai- lure of other functions? The Anschütz bridge system consists of autonomous devices which operate inde- pendently of each other. Disturbances or switching off of one device do not affect the other devices directly. Example: If the radar fails, the electronic sea chart is not distur- bed and vice versa; if log or autopilot fails, conning and ECDIS of course continue working. Anschütz Integrated Bridge System BridgeControl® Documentation and system support Besides ergonomics and equipment func- tomatic Navigation and Track Keeping Sys- rudder position, water depth, distance and tion, the classification societies put particu- tem (ANTS)“, comprises five elements: course to next waypoint, wind and drift. A lar emphasis on documentation and ope- electronic sea chart, further important function of the conning rator training by the manufacturer. This is separate route planning station with di- displays is the alarm display.