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1
Faculty of Navigation, Maritime University of Szczecin,
Wały Chrobrego 1-2, 70-500 Szczecin, Poland
z.pietrzykowski@am.szczecin.pl
2
Faculty of Transport, Warsaw University of Technology,
Koszykowa 75, 00-662 Warsaw, Poland
jsk@wt.pw.edu.pl
1 Introduction
to assure safe navigation, mainly cover one specific mode of transport (e-navigation – sea
transport, SWIM concept (System Wide Information Management) in the air transport,
ERMTS – rail transport, intelligent transport systems – road transport). Concepts covering
all modes of transport have been recently addressed, e.g. e-transport (EU). These broadly
use telematic equipment and systems.
At the same time more attention is paid, apart from typical presentation or exchange
of information, to communication issues such as selective acquisition of information
and negotiations, by analogy to similar processes involving humans. Development of
such methods will permit to improve communication processes by their automation and
reduction of human errors - one of the most common causes of accidents. This paper
discusses communications issues in maritime and air transport that can be extended to
other modes of transport.
The demand for various kinds of transport services, except for periodical downward
fluctuations, is constantly rising. Potential benefits from the execution of transport
tasks lead to actions aimed at broadening the range of transport services offered by
carriers. Maintaining a firm position on the market requires actions for assuring safe
and efficient transport. This is achieved by enhancing the safety and reliability of
transport vehicles, infrastructure and by reduction of human errors and their conse‐
quences on the one hand, and cost optimization on the other hand. Growing social
awareness enforces pro-ecological actions, such as the reduction of environment
pollution. Limiting human errors is mainly achieved by supporting transport opera‐
tors in gathering, processing, integration and presentation of information needed in
taking decisions and by supporting decisions to be made through a generation of
specific, justifiable solutions. To this end, various methods of risk analysis, assess‐
ment and management have been increasingly employed. At the same time more and
more interest is taken in designs and practical implementations of unmanned remotely
controlled and autonomous vehicles. In practice, such solutions have already been
implemented in sea and air transport.
remotely controlled or autonomous, employed in the military and civil areas. While the
former depend on humans, the control by man on autonomous vessels as a rule is
minimal. In both types of vehicles, prior to decisions and resultant actions, information
on the system and its environment has to be acquired, processed and utilized.
3 Communication Processes
Air transport information exchange runs at different levels. Besides, there are many
technical solutions used in aviation systems [8].
At the phase of flight preparation, the Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunication
Network is mainly used. Messages sent within the network include flight plans, mete‐
orological information and alerting. Flight plan messages convey information on
planned departure, departure changes or flight cancellations to all air traffic control
sectors involved.
At the flight execution phase, three areas of communication process can be identified.
One is information exchange intended to define the traffic situation in the air. The major
Navigational Information Exchange and Negotiation System 5
Author Proof
The CISE concept [5] aims at the creation of legal and technical conditions for the
exchange of information on activities involving maritime surveillance between compe‐
tent organs of EU and EEC states. The scope covers law enforcement, border control,
transport, control of sea pollution, fisheries, customs. CISE consists in combining the
existing maritime surveillance systems and networks, not a creation of a new system.
The automation of communication processes also covers issues of selective informa‐
tion acquisition, interpretation, assessment of current or predicted situation, identification
of intentions of traffic participant etc. This requires the development of sub-ontology for
communication. Previously proposed standards for messages [2] enable the execution of
communication processes in the form of a dialogue – similarly to a dialogue conducted by
humans. The standardization and strict interpretation of navigational information is of
major importance in this context. Several standards for information exchange are being
developed.
5.1 Assumptions
information, messages sent and formats of recording, a necessary step when it comes to
transmitting an intention, question or request (demand).
Navigational information ontology is understood as a meta-linguistic term describing
the structure and form of navigational information, taking into account information types
and scopes. The work [9] presents an example classification, definition of set structures
and their interrelations. The mentioned meta-language should also conform with the
adopted standards addressing selected areas of navigational information.
The remarks above also refer to the way messages will be formulated and exchanged
in ship/aircraft to ship/aircraft and ship/aircraft-to-shore/ground communications. One
way of solving the problem is the use of appropriately constructed ontology of naviga‐
tional information and a sub-ontology for communication (dialog), where an emphasis
would be put on terms connected with information exchange and negotiation processes.
Research on these issues in maritime communications has been done at the Maritime
University of Szczecin [15]. The ontology was created, edited and expanded with the
use of Protége software [2], extended by an authored plug for automatic generation of
ontology in the XML-Schema format. The ontology itself was developed in compliance
with standards used in communication at sea [10], with assistance from navigating
officers, and is systematically broadened.
An essential element of the proposed concept of a platform for automatic sea and air
navigational communication will be negotiations as a process of interpersonal communi‐
cation, in which parties of partly divergent interests attempt to reach an agreement satis‐
factory for both parties. In this connection, a specific negotiation strategy (co-operation or
competition) will have to be defined and executed.
To analyze and interpret contents of dialogs in the automation of selective information
acquisition and negotiation processes we need inference methods. They are built on a
knowledge base containing a set or sets of implications enabling interpretation of premises
and formulation of conclusions. The methods should comprise two levels of inference:
effective selective acquisition of information (identification of needed information and its
source, automatic analysis and interpretation of information), and execution of negotiation
processes (development of negotiation strategies, development of the ontology permitting
to comprehend correctly the intentions of both parties).
6 Conclusion
This paper deals with issues of navigational information interchange and negotiations
between sea and air traffic participants. Increased throughput, advancements in naviga‐
tion and surveillance methods, and efforts to enhance the safety of transport enforce
gradual implementation of continually improved automatic methods and techniques in the
organization and control of marine or air traffic. In this context, navigational information
interchange and automated negotiations in situations of potential conflict pose a chal‐
lenge for support system designers. This work proposes a concept of a joint communica‐
tion platform for maritime and air navigation, and presents assumptions and directions of
further work.
References
1. Bone, R.S., Long, K.M.: Flight Crew and Air Traffic Controller Interactions when Conducting
Interval Management Utilizing Voice and Controller Pilot Data Link Communications,
MITRE Technical Report 130300, Center for Advanced Aviation System Development
2. Banaś, P.: Using the Protégé environment for building ontology for automated
communication system at sea. Sci. Pap. Marit. Univ. Szczecin 30, 12–17 (2012)
3. Dopping-Hepenstal, L.: Autonomy in the Air, International Navigational Conference 2015,
Manchester (2015)
4. EC Communication, Communication from the Commission providing guidance on State aid
complementary to Community funding for the launching of the motorways of the sea (2008/
C 317/08) (2008)
5. EC Communication 538 final, A common information sharing environment for the EU
maritime domain (2009)
10 Z. Pietrzykowski and J. Skorupski
Author Proof