Distributed Intelligent Navigation Systems

Over the past several years, we have seen increasing levels of shipʹs automation accompanied by increasingly smaller shipʹs crews. Some forms of the automation introduced are derivatives of aerospace technology, including automated intelligent decision support for shipʹs crews. This paper discusses changes in waterway systems which have evolved over the past twenty years, and describes two projects illustrative of those changes, in different states of maturity: the Distributed Intelligent Piloting System (DIPS) for the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the Lockheed Martin SmaitBridge™, an intelligent shipʹs bridge system which was deployed on a Chevron Shipping Company oil tanker. The paper discusses the impacts of such technology on users of waterway systems, as well as future directions for distributed intelligent navigation systems.