The latest meeting of IMO’s Sub-Committee on Navigation, Communications and Search and Rescue (NCSR) concludes this week, focusing on core areas relating to safety at sea including GMDSS, e-Navigation and vessel tracking.

The Nautical Institute (NI) has begun a consultation process to help assess the latest proposals for standardised navigation equipment, under which it intends to seek the views of seafarers on the introduction of an ‘S-Mode’ on critical navigation systems.

NAVTOR has updated its digital chart table with the launch of NavStation 4.0, adding a new passage planning module to reduce the amount of administration work required in managing vessel routing, both on board ship and at the fleet level.

The IALA (International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities) Council has adopted a new specification guideline for digital services in the maritime domain, based on input from the EfficienSea2 project led by the Danish Maritime Administration.

The first full sea trials of the Maritime Connectivity Platform (MCP), created via a partnership between the EfficienSea2 and STM Validation projects in Europe and the Korean SMART Navigation Project, have been successfully completed with a demonstration of the technology in Korea.

ABB has launched a new situational awareness system that can be used by officers anywhere onboard a ship to access multiple real-time visualisations of a vessel’s surroundings.

Norway-based navigation technology company Nautisk has released an updated version of its digital navigation publication library, NaviTab.

Alphatron Marine has launched an automated course and track control system for the inland shipping segment that allows a ship to sail automatically along a predefined line.

Maritime navigation company Nautisk has announced a partnership with the Korea Environmental Science & Technology Institute (KESTI), which will see the Korean company offer Nautisk’s digital navigation products and services to its regional market.

GNS has launched its new VOYAGER Hub application platform, with the aim of supporting implementation of selected software systems on board ship while also providing an additional layer of protection against cyber threats.