An Evaluation of a Shipboard Collision Avoidance Display

Abstract

Background: Navigating a ship at night in close proximity to another vessel is a dangerous task. To increase the conning officer's situational awareness, we propose a visual navigation display mounted on the stern of the aircraft carrier that will assist shipboard conning officers when maneuvering in a battle group formation. Methods: To test the effectiveness of the visual navigation display, the aircraft carrier and plane guard vessel were modeled in a virtual environment. Results: The navigation display condition had significantly fewer range and bearing errors than to the non-navigation display condition. The navigation display provided immediate feedback as to whether the aircraft carrier had changed bearing or speed, thus enabling the operator to initiate the appropriate input to maintain station astern of the carrier. Conclusions: Actual or potential applications of this research include combatants conducting plane guard duties astern of an aircraft carrier during flight operations and ships in underway replenishment waiting station.