Latest technological developments in vessel tracking and monitoring

摘要

VTS equipment is rapidly evolving following trends set in onboard navigation systems as well as trends expanding from other sectors such as the military and air traffic management. Today it is common for a traffic image to consist of a fusion of many different sensors including radar, AIS and other Hydrographic and Meteorological sources.In particular, AIS has revolutionised the way in which VTS interacts with traffic. In the past VTS would have been aware of a vessels approach only by a raw radar return on the traffic image prompting questions such as "Who is this?", "Where is she bound?", "Will she cause me trouble!" AIS now provides VTS an advanced insight into the vessel, enabling aVTS to prepare for the vessel in terms of advance traffic management.