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Abstract

There have been intensive discussions about methods to prevent vessels from grounding when sailing near offshore or harbor areas because grounding accidents always cause oil pollution around coastline areas. This study used a marine geographic information system (MGIS) to survey the 3D seabed topography and geology in order to build a novel virtual aid for navigation with a grounding alert. Dynamic and static data were provided by using the Automatic Identification System (AIS) as the input, and fuzzy logic control was used for computation of the output. The maximum draft point along the vessel’s route was configured as a reference point, and a swath angle of 0-90 was used to search the seabed topography segments and obtain the Water Depth Swath Angle (WDSA) based on the concept of the compression and dilation equations for time and space. The MGIS was used as the data processing platform. After analysing the professional sailing rule base with the high alert rule base with regard to the security benefit of the hazard alert, an appropriate alert distance was configured. Moreover, AIS/MGIS could be used for XTE (cross track error) calibration. Based on three alert levels (amber, red, and flashing red/alarm), VTS operators and crewmembers can obtain precise alerts to perform effective avoidance before vessels enter shallow water.

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