Equipment specific ECDIS training

Risk of over-reliance
Risk of over-reliance

Introduction

Traditional navigational skills sometimes appear

to be superseded by over-reliance on new
technological advances and automated features.

The Watch Officer must always be wary how the

system is actually performing in regard to
accuracy and reliability. This requires an
awareness of the deficiencies and risks of the
overall system and its components. It must be
recognized that the quality of the sum of the
information is essentially dependent on the
reliability of the each component of data and
technology. Similar to any system, an ECDIS is not
infallible. It has the same shortcomings that exist
in any technical device.
Risk of over-reliance

Training Chapter Objective

Recognition of the facts that:

• a potential risk of improper functioning of
the system and of data being inaccurate is
inherent to the system
• displayed hydrographic data is not more
reliable than the survey data on which it is
based
• displayed sensor data is not more reliable
than the respective sensor systems it
originates from
• ECDIS is only a tool that supports the mariner
in the performing of the navigational tasks
• errors/inaccuracies in one subsystem may
influence the performance of other
subsystems and potentially render the ECDIS
useless
Risk of over-reliance
Grounding of the ROYAL MAJESTY
near Nantucket USA
Risk of over-reliance

Running off the course

Risk of over-reliance

Grounding of the ROYAL MAJESTY near Nantucket USA

• The ship sails from Bermuda towards Boston

• The GPS is connected to the Gyro Compass and Speed log (!)
• When departing Bermuda the GPS antenna connection breaks.
• The GPS switches to DR and keeps sending positions to the IBS
system
• The IBS uses this position from GPS for track steering
• The IBS is using DR to check the GPS – it matches well!
• The IBS is not capable of using the Loran-C receiver
• The Loran-C position is different from the GPS position
• The ship is in open waters for 31 hours
• The vessel passes a buoy, as expected, but cannot read the
buoy number
• There are still no islands or racons visibleto make a landfall fix
• Depths are too unreliable to assist in positioning
• 1,5 hours later red and yellow lights are observed.
• The OOW does not check which lights they may be
• 2 hours later the OOW fails to see the BB buoy
• Instead the vessel travels on through „white and blue“ waters
• 30 minutes later the vessel had run aground
• When the vessel ran aground they could observeNantucket on
the radar on the12NM scale
• Royal Majesty grounded about 17 miles west of intended route
Risk of over-reliance

Safety issues, examined in the report

• Performance of the Royal Majesty's integrated bridge system and the global
positioning system
• Performance of the Royal Majesty's watch officers
• Effects of automation on watch officers' performance
• Training standards for watch officers aboard vessels equipped with electronic
navigation systems and integrated bridge systems
• Design, installation, and testing standards for integrated bridge systems
Risk of over-reliance

Use all available means

The use of ECDIS does not relieve the officer

of the watch from his duty to use all
available means.
The ECDIS is a single unit that consolidates
several sensors and the navigation chart.
Any error in a sensor, the chart or the ECDIS
itself, may lead to a dangerous situation.
The officer of the watch should therefore
conduct regular checks of all connected
sensors, the back-up ECDIS and use sight and
hearing as well as all available means to fix
ships position and progress.
Risk of over-reliance

Sensor errors

The main sensor for your ECDIS is the EPFS.

The officer of the watch should familiarize him or
her self with the EPFS, know its menus and where
the antenna is located.
A quick check of the unit should include:
• Power on
• All cables and connectors appear OK
• Several satellites are being tracked, and they
have an OK value for SNR – (signal strength)
• The HDOP value is low – normal might be 0,5 –
3, high is any value above 4
• RAIM settings are OK and indicate safe
• Position is being updated every second
• Chart datum is set to WGS-84
• If DGPS is in use – the station in use is near by
• If DGPS is in use – corrections are being
received for most satellites
Risk of over-reliance

Sensor errors

Whenever considered safe, periodical tests should

be conducted, to demonstrate error modes and
back-up arrangements.
Turn your primary EPFS off
• wait to see how long time it takes for any alarm
to trigger
• see how the ECDIS reacts, what happens with
position fixing

With your primary EPFS in normal operation, block

the antenna entirely, by placing a bucket or similar
on top of the antenna.
• See what happens with SNR, HDOP, RAIM
• Wait to see how long time it takes for any alarm
to trigger
• See how the ECDIS reacts, what happens with
position fixing

If a second EPFS is installed, also try the same on

this unit.
Risk of over-reliance

Sensor errors

Gyro input will control the alignment of the ship‘s

contour and heading marker, and may therefore
influence both ships position and what the officer
of the watch is expecting to see in different
directions.
A simple check like steering towards (or taking the
bearing of ) a visual charted object will quickly
determine any errors.
Gyro and log input will together dictate the
direction and length of own ships vector.
If the difference between the two vectors (gyro-log
versus COG-SOG) are large, it should be determined
if this difference is due to ship‘s drift or due to
sensor error.
Risk of over-reliance

Chart errors

ENC charts are normally based on new surveys and

are always in WGS-84.
The ENC production is however new to most
countries and there have been a few instances
where ENC charts have contained errors and
updates to ENCs have been slower than updates to
paper charts.
In any case, there might still be shallow areas that
have not been found yet, and due to sand drift,
silting, earth quakes, dropped objects, etc. depths
might have changed since they were last surveyed.
Route planning and navigation should preferably be
performed along the same tested shipping lanes
and with the same safety margins as in the days of
the paper chart
Your echo sounder is still a valuable tool to confirm
or challenge depth below keel.
Risk of over-reliance

ECDIS errors

Your ECDIS is an industrial type computer and has been

through tough testing for before being approved to be
put onboard a ship.
Even so, something might fail. A single component failure
may affect a single function or the whole ECDIS.
Most errors should be immediately obvious to the officer
of the watch, and also detected by the back-up ECDIS but
in rare occasions an almost invisible „freeze“ of the
computer might occur, and may go undetected for some
time.
There have also been events where duplicate units of
other marine equipment have had the same software
fault whereby they both stopped working at the same
time.
It might be advisable to reboot ECDIS computers
periodically, with different re-boot times for main ECDIS
and back-up units.
Risk of over-reliance

Human errors

The change from paper chart based navigation to ECDIS is a

major shift.
Initial studies show that marine safety is in fact improved
with ECDIS. Even so, we will most likely see an ECDIS-aided
collision or grounding.
Only when a large group of ships is using ECDIS for primary
navigation will we see the full effect of the ECDIS on
navigational safety and the behavior of masters and officers.
The shipping industry should therefore remain humble,
investigate accidents and near misses properly and
cooperate closely with research projects and studies, ready
to change training, equipment design and procedures
accordingly.
Each officer or Master should commit fully to the new
technology and take in all the benefits, while still
maintaining a hint of skepticism. New training and
procedures should be adopted and ample feedback be given
to the company.
During planning and navigation he should always remain
focused on the overall goal of improved safety of life,
property and the environment. With all available means.