Standardized navigational data for situational awareness during simultaneous maritime operations

The objective of this paper is to describe a protocol for exchange of navigational data between ships operating in close proximity. The protocol supports the exchange of data needed for relative positioning and includes geometry data of the objects involved in the operation in addition to inertial and positional data. The protocol takes into account the variable and limited communication capabilities that may be available for maritime operations. The paper describes one use case where two ships perform a simultaneous operation and another use case where a ship broadcasts its intended route. A S-100 Application Schema covering the required data is presented. Examples of the message exchange and bandwidth requirements are given. The resulting protocol will be useful for autonomous systems and ships that need standardized exchange of data to support situational awareness during their passage. The paper is written as part of the H2H project [1] which is developing an open system architecture to ensure interoperability between different vendors of autonomous systems when it comes to the data exchange related to position and geometry data.