Communication Technologies for the Improvement of Marine Transportation Operations

Abstract

The short-sea waterborne transportation makes use of several systems and technologies which are not interconnected neither interoperable, including inner ship mechanical and information, communication systems and complex alert situation and terrorist attack prevention systems located both in ports, inland and on-board the ships. Each single system and piece of technology delivers complex data, other information and functionalities which are vital for the working stability of all waterborne transport operations. The integration of specific decision support functionalities based on information and communication technologies (ICT) in the intelligent ship management systems could deliver new business functionalities and indeed make waterborne transportation more autonomous, efficient and safer. In this paper, current stages of development of the intelligent transportation concept are discussed and a robust ships systems integration and communication system concept is presented for several normal and abnormal situations: high-traffic, potentially dangerous situations or port approaching or ship maintenance, with the capability to solve problems with the limited human interface and with a remote control possibility.