The problem of continuous position availability is one of the most important issues connected with human activity at sea. Because the availability of the electronic navigational systems can be limited in some cases (for example during military operations) we should consider additional methods of gathering information about ship's position. In this paper, one of these methods is presented, which is based on extraction of specific features from radar images – characteristic points of the coastline

Vessel stability in a harbour is perceived as a less important problem than stability at sea. Cargo operations are regarded as safe to vessel stability. However, analyses show that stability accidents at harbour can be as dangerous to a vessel and a crew as open-sea accidents. An analysis of the reasons of stability accidents during cargo operations is presented in this article, as well as an analysis of vessels stability safety during typical cargo operations carried out in harbours and in emergency cases

This paper presents the general outline of European Network for Maritime Surveillance (ENMS). Establishing such a network constitutes one of the main tasks of the Integrated Maritime Policy of the European Union, which is now being developed. The relations of that future network with the already existing Vessel Traffic Monitoring and Information System (VTMIS) of the European Union, as well as with the already developing Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) system and with the Global Earth Observing System of Systems (GEOSS) have also been shown

Navigators’ support systems have been introduced on the sea going ships and in the vessel traffic centers. Those systems had been until recently used for manually performed tasks like: equiring, monitoring, information reception etc. Nowadays, supporting systems may concern much wider areas, especially areas in which knowledge about work, behaviour, regulations etc. is required. An example of such a system could be a prototype of navigational decision support system being built at the Maritime University of Szczecin. The article presents a definition of navigational knowledge, its representation and function in navigational decision support system

The article presents the guidelines of an internet based GMDSS course. It has been prepared by a group of experts from ten European countries, among others lecturers from the Maritime Academy of Szczecin. The project EGMDSS has been worked out within the framework of European Union Leonardo da Vinci Programme

The author presents his considerations on the role of a ship’s captain in a situation when the ship is under control of pirates and terrorists and negotiations are being conducted. The paper contains a suggestion of how the captain should behave while negotiating with hijackers

Conception of the radar navigation process automation is presented in this paper. In navigation, using the radar presentation is very common. Designing and working out still new navigation systems based mainly on modern radars is the result of the search for precise, automatic and independent systems which allow us to lead and manoeuvre in the vicinity of constant and moving navigational dangers. The article presents the initial researches results obtained on that field and focuses on the following problems: – extraction of the radar image characteristic points, – determination of the position of characteristic points and of the own position with the use of the methods of comparing navigation, – automation of the radar image characteristic points identification, – improvement of the accuracy while determining one’s own position and the position of the characteristic points based on the elements of the compensation calculation

In order to devise a navigator’s decision support system correctly, information should be specified, on stage of projecting, on basis of which the decision shall be worked out. The article presents requirements concerning obligatory ship equipment in navigational systems and devices, and the second part presents the detailed analysis of accessible navigational information on example of the m/s Nawigator XXI

This article discusses the importance of evacuation routes from machinery spaces, and analyze their availability in the event of emergency cases, such as fire, flooding, toxic threat, terrorist attack on modern ships with spaces in the area of the engine room. It describes and provides an analysis of the course of action of escape from machinery spaces in typical cases of the actual fires on ships of the Polish and foreign flags. It identifies the main threats and reasons for causing the unavailability of escape routes, identifies factors of delay, or even prevent the evacuation of people from such spaces in the risk situation. It shows the current status of the relevant international rules and the requirements of classification societies concerning the number and structure of the main and emergency escape routes. It presents the current proposals for the revision of international rules concerning the number and structure of the escape routes from machinery spaces on ships

It was presented problems of fulfillment the IMO tier 3 requirements. The proposition of using selective catalytic reduction was very interesting, but provided to many maintenance problems due to the degrading mechanisms of that systems. Some of those mechanisms were presented. It provided to degradation of those systems and worsening their emission reduction possibilities. The certificate of EIAPP may not tell the truth. It needs periodical surveys (minimum one per year) for checking the validity of issued EIAPP certificate. A SCR system would be activated only on restricted areas of environmental emission control due to maintenance costs

The paper presents a concept of use the logical controller and typical pneumatic elements to construction of programmable manipulator. The construction, principle of action and properties of device were described. The paper contains also detailed functional schemes of system, as well as discussion of performed manipu-lator tests. Finally, the application area of described device was include

The paper presents a concept of application of optical displacement sensor type Sharp GP2Y0A02 in the linear positioning system containing rodless pneumatic actuator and programmable controller. The coupling circuit between sensor and controller, containing voltage controlled current source was proposed. The properties of measuring system were investigated, and some mathematical models of its static characteristic were found using the less squares method. The analysis of residual errors, and sum of squared residual errors were performed. Finally, the model minimizing the mentioned quantities, as well as measuring range of investigated system were selecte

In the article, the authors presented the conception of station for detection, location and analysis of ground and soil contamination. The mobile station of detecting and spatial analysis of ground contamination integrates apparatus applied in remote sensing and geophysical measuring. The remote sensing part of the station is based on hyperspectral remote sensing system which uses differential measurement of reflection coefficients of polluted and non-polluted surfaces. The geophysics part of the station involves two non-invasive methods: the radar and electro resistivity tomography (measurements of EM waves propagation in ground – water environment). These methods are complementary to each other. The integration of methods applied in two branches of science gives the entirely new possibilities of superficial ground contamination researches in connection with the depth of the contamination and its influence on underground structures such as: underground waters, water-bearing (aquiferous) layers, transmission or industrial installations. The interdisciplinary character of proposed method allows, through complex utilization of remote sensing and geophysics methods, to obtain a spatial and dynamic model of the contaminated terrain

The article presents the analysis of accuracy position defining of sea infrastructure objects using high-resolution satellite imagery. The analysis bases on defining co-ordinates of objects using large-scale maps (field measurements) and their comparison to co-ordinates reading on processed satellite imagery. The article presents the author’s method of location precision enlarging on satellite imagery through additional imagery data support (geodetic and cartographic). Results of conducted analysis define accuracy of object’s location on satellite imagery and are related to the possibility of using these images to large scale cartographical studies

Paper presented difference between Reliability Centered Maintenance and reactive/preventive maintenance. Methods of performing RCM analysis which lead to selecting the most appropriate maintenance policy were described. Tasks designed to detect hidden failures – failure finding tasks – and the difference between hidden and evident failures were presented. Importance of failure finding tasks in failure prevention was discussed. Methods of how to determine the frequency of failure finding tasks were described. It was presented RCM analysis as a method to maintain desired availability of offshore dynamic positioning platform MSV “Regalia”