In navigation, greater efficiency, ease of operation and economical ship operation are more important than ever before. These demands are fulfilled when all necessary functions can be integrated intelligently and flexibly into one bridge system. Raytheon Anschütz has now developed a modern integration platform which further improves both the nautical and the economical operation of the ship through intelligent integration of functions.
The new platform makes possible not only the integration of additional applications such as automation data indication, DP system or load- and ballast calculator, but also the full scalability and future expandability of the bridge system. Intelligent multifunction displays provide the ship’s command with the optimal nautical task at the right time as well as other ship control functions, at any desired workplace.
Operating safety is considerably increased by a newly developed distribution of the navigation data and system configuration within the bridge system. The "Consistent Common Reference System" (CCRS) continuously monitors the sensor data available on board with regard to validity, consistency and accuracy and rates the data with a quality indicator. From this information a set of the best sensor data is compiled, which is then distributed in the Integrated Bridge. In addition, the new "Health Monitoring" system checks the status of each individual console and regulates, if necessary, take-over of the navigational task at another workplace on the Integrated Bridge or restarting of the console itself. In this way the highest possible availability of data and functions is guaranteed on the bridge.
In order to counteract the high stress on board, Raytheon Anschütz has outfitted the Integrated Bridge with an intelligent Alarm Management system. Depending on the system configuration and the status of sensors, the system checks whether the error of an individual sensor is sufficiently critical to set off an alarm, or whether the error only needs to be indicated to the watch officer for information. The ship’s command is thus relieved by having fewer blinking displays or continuous beeping to attend to and concentration on really important alarms is increased.
Raytheon Anschütz integrates the operator interface of the Alarm Management in the new and expanded Conning. It can be operated from any workplace using the multifunction displays. The Conning also provides the operator interface for the new CCRS and shows the quality of the sensors as well as the active set of sensor data. Alternatively to automatic sensor selection, manual sensor selection remains possible to enable the navigator to choose the sensors himself. The central presentation of the alarms, the sensor quality and having all navigation data available on every multifunction display make the Integrated Navigation easy to see at a glance and simplify operation and monitoring.
