Coastal Navigation Routing With Tide-Adjusted Depth Paths
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing GPS-based marine navigation systems for inshore and nearshore coastal areas often calculate routes that include traversable and non-traversable sections, requiring manual adjustment and recalculation, and local knowledge-based charts lack standardized data for boater assessment, leading to confusion and inefficiency.
Innovation Solution
A dynamic navigation routing system that provides navigational routing paths with embedded depth data adjusted for changing tide conditions, using survey boats to record routes and overlay bathymetric maps, displaying segments based on safe depth and tidal datums, and allowing manual or automatic adjustments for real-time navigation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If GPS-based systems calculate routes using numerous adjustable settings, then route calculation flexibility is improved, but system complexity and ease of operation deteriorate due to requiring manual adjustment of multiple settings
Solution Approach 1:
The system automatically determines navigability parameters and calculates routes without requiring the boater to manually adjust multiple settings. The processor autonomously evaluates depth data, tidal information, and vessel draft to generate navigable routes, eliminating the need for manual settings adjustment while maintaining route calculation flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically changes parameters such as depth thresholds and tidal adjustments based on real-time conditions and vessel characteristics. By automatically modifying these parameters rather than requiring manual user input, the system maintains adaptability while improving ease of operation.
2Loss of information
If GPS-based systems display calculated routes with highlighted non-traversable portions, then route information completeness is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates due to risk of inadvertent navigation errors
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts and removes non-navigable portions from the calculated route before presenting it to the boater. By automatically eliminating land portions and shallow areas from the route display, the system provides complete route information while preventing navigation errors, as the displayed route contains only traversable sections.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates real-time feedback by continuously monitoring depth data and tidal conditions to verify route navigability. This feedback mechanism ensures that the displayed route remains safe and navigable under current conditions, preventing inadvertent navigation errors while maintaining complete route information.
3Adaptability or versatility
If local knowledge-based charts provide multiple colored tracks with different operating conditions, then navigation adaptability is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to lack of standardized navigability data
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses standardized parameters such as precise depth measurements, tidal datums, and vessel draft specifications to determine navigability. By replacing subjective cartographer discretion with objective, standardized parameters, the system maintains navigation adaptability while significantly improving the reliability and accuracy of navigability data.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts route recommendations based on real-time tidal conditions and depth data rather than relying on static, pre-defined tracks. This dynamic approach maintains adaptability to different navigation scenarios while ensuring reliability through continuous, data-driven assessment of actual navigable conditions.
4Measurement precision
If navigational routing paths include depth data adjusted to tidal datums, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity increases due to tidal data processing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary tidal datum adjustments when creating and storing the navigational routing path database. By pre-processing depth data to account for tidal variations, the system achieves high measurement precision while reducing runtime complexity, as the tidal compensation is already embedded in the stored depth values rather than calculated in real-time.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses tidal datum references as an intermediary to translate between fixed depth measurements and variable water levels. This intermediary approach allows the system to maintain simple data structures while achieving precise depth measurements, as the tidal datum acts as a reference framework that simplifies the relationship between static depth data and dynamic water levels.
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method of providing navigational routing paths through inshore and nearshore coastal areas that include surveyed depth information and visual indications of the suitability of such paths based on particulars of the user's boat and preferences are presented. Adjustments to both an indication of the depth and the suitability of each segment of the paths are provided. Manual input of local water level observations or tide data from local tide stations may be used for such adjustments. Adjustments may be applied locally or globally, and may be provided dynamically based on changing tide information over the travel time needed to reach distant segments along the navigational routing path. Such tide information is also used to adjust contour and depth area data displayed on bathymetric contour maps on which such navigational routing paths are displayed.