Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) Introduction

The Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) is another great technological revolution in the field of ship navigation after radar/ARPA, and has evolved into a new type of ship navigation system and auxiliary decision system. It not only provides the ship position continuously, but also provides various information related to navigation, effectively preventing various dangers. At present, there are more than 200,000 ships installed ECDIS in the world. With the gradual improving of national official electronic charts (ENC), the emergence of standard ECDIS and the recognition of IMO, ECDIS will completely replace paper charts in the next 10 years and become a comprehensive treatment method for navigation information in the 21st century.

The reason why electronic charts are highly valued is that they have the advantage that traditional paper charts cannot match. The electronic chart system can perform automatic route design, heading track monitoring, automatic storage of own ship track, historical voyage re-demonstration, navigation automatic alarm (such as yaw, mis-entry into danger zone, etc.), quick query of various information (such as hydrology, Ports, tides, currents, etc., real-time display of ship dynamics (such as refreshing the ship's position, speed, heading, etc.), overlaying the radar/ARPA echo image on the chart, and automatically correcting thousands of charts A few minutes.

Development background and basic composition

The development of electronic charts has gone through three stages: 1) paper chart equivalents. From the late 1970s to 1984, people mainly wanted to reduce the volume and reduce the labor intensity of chart work. Therefore, just paper. The chart is digitally processed and stored in the computer. 2) In the function development stage, by 1986, people began to explore the various potentials of electronic charts. For example, the ship position and route design are displayed on the electronic chart, and the ship parameters such as ship speed and heading are displayed, alarms, and the like. 3) In the navigation information system stage, the electronic chart is used as the core of navigation information, including the improvement of the electronic chart database, and various equipments and systems such as radar, locator, log, depth sounder, GPS, VTS, AIS, etc. Interfaces and combinations, and more. The role of the multi-purpose marine electronic chart system in ensuring the safety of the ship has been recognized by IMO and IHO (International Hydrographic Organization) and numerous marine experts. In July 1986, IMO and IHO established the ECDIS 

Coordination Group. ECDIS standards and specifications are continuously established and improved, and various ECDIS products with excellent performance are constantly being updated.

ECDIS is composed of four basic parts: main computer system, electronic chart database, input sensor, and output terminal equipment. The main computer is the core of the electronic chart, which needs to be used to complete a lot of calculations and logical reasoning. The important point is the processing of computer graphics. The Electronic Navigation Chart (ENC) is issued by an official license. In addition to displaying accurate electronic charts, ECDIS should also display information about the ship's position, speed, heading and surrounding targets. Therefore, the system needs to access various navigation sensors and other information sensors.System terminal equipment includes graphic displays, printers, and track recorders. It shall display or output the data of the navigation elements of the chart, the contents of the man-machine dialogue, the alarm information, the hot keys and menus for the mariners to operate.

Electronic chart display and information system development trend

At present, ECDIS performance standards, chart display specifications, and data standards have been established, paving the way for its legalization and popularization. The key issues to be solved in the future are: to establish a global coverage of ENC and chart correction service network as soon as possible; to expand the standard functions of ECDIS to make it intelligent; with high-precision positioning systems, radar collision avoidance systems, ship communication systems The rudder control system is integrated to assist in the formulation of the ship's decision-making. At the same time, it can control the ship to sail on the optimal route in the most economical way and improve the shipping efficiency.

At present, some marine technology development companies in the world have connected their ECDIS with navigation systems, ARPA, automatic rudders, etc., forming a so-called combined bridge system. The main idea is to integrate the information from these nautical instruments to provide mariners with an integrated information environment that enables them to quickly make ship-making decisions and improve navigation safety. It has become a topic of concern for today's maritime industry to let the machine replace the mariner to complete the work, to reduce the possibility of marine accidents caused by human factors and to reduce the crew quota.

ECDIS can achieve navigation of ships in inland waterways. Due to the particularity of the inland navigation environment, the requirements for positioning are higher, especially in the navigation areas such as the gate area, the bridge area and the narrow river section. Under the premise of high-precision DGPS and dynamic electronic river map, it can be in the inland waterway. High-precision and high-reliability navigation is achieved, which brings considerable economic benefits in terms of safety, dredging, and navigation management.