Route Condition Simulation for Marine Navigation Safety
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current route planning software for mobile platforms, such as marine vessels, lacks the simulation of varying conditions along a route, including lighting conditions, which can be critical for safe navigation, especially in challenging environments like shallow waters with coral reefs where visibility changes with sunlight hours.
Innovation Solution
A system and method that includes a navigation control module to generate route data and a conditions control module to determine and display lighting conditions, along with other conditions like weather and traffic, using a graphical user interface to provide navigators with a comprehensive view of the route conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If route planning software displays only the route without conditions, then the display is simple and easy to understand, but the navigator cannot anticipate lighting and environmental conditions that affect safe navigation
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary simulation of lighting and environmental conditions along the entire route before the navigator begins the journey. The conditions control module pre-calculates lighting conditions, weather patterns, and other environmental factors at different times and locations along the planned route, allowing the navigator to review and prepare for upcoming conditions before encountering them.
Solution Approach 2:
The system creates a virtual copy or simulation of the actual route conditions by modeling lighting patterns, weather conditions, and environmental factors. This simulated representation allows the navigator to view and analyze conditions that will be encountered without being physically present in those conditions, enabling better preparation and decision-making.
2Reliability
If the system simulates detailed conditions along the route, then navigation safety improves, but the system complexity and computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the route into multiple segments or zones, each with its own set of simulated conditions. The route is broken down into manageable portions, allowing the conditions control module to process and display conditions for specific segments rather than attempting to handle the entire route as one complex unit. This segmentation reduces computational complexity while maintaining comprehensive coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses parameter changes to efficiently represent varying conditions along the route. By modeling lighting conditions, weather patterns, and other environmental factors as changeable parameters that vary by location and time, the system can simulate complex conditions using relatively simple computational models. The conditions control module adjusts these parameters based on the navigator's position and planned route, providing detailed information without requiring excessive system complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for simulating conditions along a route traveled by a mobile platform (such as a train, marine vessel, aircraft or automobile) is provided. The system includes a source of user input. The system also includes a navigation control module that generates navigation data. The navigation data includes a route for the mobile platform based upon at least the user input. The system further includes a conditions control module that determines at least one condition associated with the route. The at least one condition includes at least a lighting condition associated with the travel of the mobile platform along the route.