28 Feb

2004 Plimsoll Awards won by Mississippi river pilot, Coast Guard R&D Center for support of AIS

Maritime News, Tugboats & Towing
The editors of Professional Mariner have presented the Plimsoll Awards for 2004 to Capt. Douglas J. Grubbs of the Crescent River Port Pilots' Association and to the U.S. Coast Guard's Research and Development Center in Groton, Conn. Grubbs and the R&D Center were honored for their work in developing automatic identification system technology and promoting its acceptance by mariners. Rear…
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28 Feb

AIS makes its presence felt

Tugboats & Towing
It's one of the most revolutionary developments in marine navigation: the universal automatic identification system (AIS). The transponder broadcasts a broad range of information about a ship on VHF marine radio, including its position, speed, direction, cargo, classification and destination. An AIS unit transmits all this information in real time, ship to ship and ship to shore, without a central…
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28 Feb

Integrating AIS with other bridge electronics

Maritime News, Tugboats & Towing
The Automatic Identification System (AIS) was originally conceived as a safety and navigation aid for ships at sea. Mandated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), and implemented and enforced by member states, AIS provides information otherwise unavailable to a crew. AIS transponders act as conduits for information about a vessel, gathering both dynamic data about a ship, such as position,…
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27 Feb

DP taking on a larger role in response to the oil industry

Tugboats & Towing
The search for oil and gas has been a driving force in the development of dynamic positioning systems. Drill rigs, for obvious reasons, must maintain a fixed position above the ocean floor. As rigs moved off the continental shelf into water too deep for jack-up rigs or where conventional mooring or anchoring systems were not feasible, computer controlled DP systems…
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