CAE: bridges by workstations http://www.cae.com DECK CAE, which builds ship bridges for Concordia Maritime and P&O Nedlloyd, has an unusual approach to ships bridges, building them up using individual computer workstations BODY The CAE Integrated Bridge System, developed by CAE Navigation AS of Norway, is used on the high specification Concordia Maritime V-MAX tankers and on P&O Nedlloyd container ships, Fortum Oy's double acting DAT-tankers built at Sumitomo Heavy Industries, Japan; Royal Norwegian Navy vessels and Royal Swedish Navy vessels. The company also installed the machinery automation and emergency shutdown system on the Queen Mary II. CAE Navigation was previously called Hitec Marine Automation; it was renamed following the acquisition of the company by US automation giant CAE Inc. SUBHEAD Bridges The bridges are designed for maximum risk reduction and navigation safety, with a focus on minimising the amount of information displayed on screens which ship's officers have to process. The bridge is made up of several independent but networked computer workstations. The ship can be operated and monitored from any computer workstation, including monitoring the shipboard alarms and the steering. CAE believes that its approach to navigation and bridges is different to other bridge manufacturers. "The philosophy for integrated bridges of most suppliers is that of a physically integrating numerous different hardware and software systems into one console," the company claims. "The CAE Integrated Bridge takes a completely different approach focussing on functional integration. "This approach allows any navigation function to be performed from any workstation. The networked approach that brings the functionality together also allows for easy integration with other ship systems." SUBHEAD Standard presentation The displays for ECDIS (electronic chart), ARPA (radar) and conning (ship control) have similar design layouts, which should make them more user friendly and make it easier to recognise the symbols on them. Each display has a similar user control system with a roller ball cursor and buttons. The roller ball cursor is located on the armrest of the navigator chairs. Some frequently used functions can be controlled by keys on the armrest panels. The system does not use an ordinary radar display; instead it uses radar video. The radar video can also be displayed as an overlay to the ECDIS. The company believes that standard presentation can contribute to ship safety because it helps reduce the risk of operator errors, particularly in emergency situations. Some of the operating functions are similar to standard office PC software; the system takes into account that most shipboard navigators have working knowledge of modern computer systems. SUBHEAD Information overload The CAE Integrated Bridge Control System (IBCS) is designed to only display information deemed relevant to the operational situation, without cluttering the displays with other information that may not be needed at that moment. "Many ship systems in use today tend to overwhelm ship's officers with on-screen information, while only a fraction of the information presented is useful at any given time," says CAE. "This approach tends to degrade operational performance and prolong the learning process unnecessarily." SUBHEAD Other bridge factors CAE says that the bridge has multiple layers of redundancy; for example, the same data can be displayed on any of the workstations so if one of them fails then the seafarers can use a different one. Much of the hardware used is "commercial off the shelf" (COTS) - making it easier to find replacement parts without having them flown over specially from CAE headquarters in Norway. The bridge can integrate with a CAE shipboard automation system. Sensors are located around the ship, connected to "sensor concentrator (SC) units" - in some cases, sensors are connected to more than one SC for greater redundancy. The SCs are connected to the workstations by fibre optic cable. For greater redundancy, there are two groups of SCs, each feeding the same data to half of the workstations. A "visibility analysis" has been conducted on the bridge to make sure that the steering view is optimised as far as possible with minimal blind angles. Special military functionality is available (the systems are used by the Norwegian and Swedish Navy). This includes warship ECDIS (WECDIS), display of tactical (military) information. The bridge can be connected to a remote diagnostics system over Inmarsat B or Inmarsat Fleet, enabling support and software diagnostics to be carried out on shore, which should lead to any problems being solved much more quickly. The system is designed to be flexible in terms of the sensors which can be interfaced with it; it can accept sensor inputs from many different suppliers with different signal transmission methods and protocols. It can be integrated with a closed circuit television system and voyage data recorders. SUBHEAD Automation On the Concordia Maritime V-MAX vessels, CAE delivered its Damatic Xdi system. The automation system has 3,250 input and output signals. There are two machinery control stations; the main process station in the engine control room and reserve in the cargo control room, so the system has complete redundancy. For example, if the engine control room has a fire or flooding the engine can still be controlled from the cargo control room. The V-MAX tankers have two separate engines, two gear and clutch controls, and four power generators. There are standby pumps. There is also a redundant control system for all pumps, valves and compressors. On the machinery plant side, the automation system monitors and controls the alarms, engine control system, gear and clutch control system, diesel starter / power management system, pumps, valves, temperature controllers, cooling control system, auxiliary blower control system. It interfaces with the tanks level sounding system, engine monitoring system, and bridge system. On the cargo side, it handles control of cargo and stripping pumps, automatic cargo unloading system, high level alarms in tanks, temperature monitoring in cargo and slop tanks, inert gas system, pressure monitoring on cargo, stripping and ballast pumps, control of cargo and ballast valves, control of ballast pumps. It interfaces with the tank radar level gauging system, the ballast tanks level sounding system and loading computer. The automation system also integrates with the engine room dead man alarm system, engineer call system, extension alarm system, report system and manoeuvre recorder.