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1 INTRODUCTION
Inrecentyears,variousnewsoftwarecomponentsfor
shipbridgeshavebeenproposedinresearch(e.g.,for
novel ways of interacting with ship bridge systems
[2]).However,whilemoreandmoretechnologiesare
presented in research the speed at which these
technologies appear on real systems is rather
slow.
Thisismainlyduetolimitedaccessandhighcostsof
testing these technologies on real ship bridges.
However, for the development of new software
componentstestsareessential.Tosolvethisproblem
and to reduce the costs of the development, the
processis dividedinto differentstages. Thereby,
the
finaltestonarealshipbridgeisonlythelaststepof
this process. By taking the approach of different
development stages, first steps can be done in a
laboratory environment. This is beneficial because
early stage software requires shorter development
cycles that support an uncomplicated execution
which is
simply not given on a real ship bridge.
However, due to the problems of testing software
componentsona realshipbridge, many researchers
and developers used training simulators for their
development in the past. These simulators support
the fastdevelopmentprocess in the early stages but
generatea new
problemwhen thecomponents need
to betransferredtoa real ship bridge. To solve this
problem a system is needed that can be used in all
developmentstagesthateasilyadaptstothesestages.
We propose Mobile Bridge, a mobile ship bridge
thatiseasytorecreateandsetup.It
supportstheearly
stagedevelopmentinshortdevelopmentcycleswith
anadditionalsimulationenvironmentaswellaslater
stagedevelopment asa parallelsetup ona realship
withoutalteringthelivesystem.TheMobileBridgeis
a configurable shipʹs bridge system in which new
eNavigation technologies can be
tested and
demonstrated.Inparticularnewinteractionconcepts
Mobile Bridge - A Portable Design Simulator for Ship
Bridge Interfaces
T.C.Stratmann,U.Gruenefeld,A.Hahn&S.Boll
UniversityofOldenburg,Oldenburg,Germany
OFFIS‐InstituteforInformationTechnology,Oldenburg,Germany
J
.Stratmann
J
adeUniversityofAppliedSciences.Wilhelmshaven,Germany
S.Schweigert
OFFIS‐InstituteforInformationTechnology,Oldenburg,Germany
ABSTRACT:Developingnewsoftwarecomponentsforshipbridgesischallenging.Mostlyduetohighcostsof
testingthesecomponentsinrealisticenvironments.Toreducethesecoststhedevelopmentprocessisdivided
intodifferentstages. Whereas,thefinaltestonarealshipbridgeis
thelaststepinthisprocess.However,by
dividing the development process into different stages new components have to be adapted to each stage
individually.Toimprovetheprocessweproposeamobileshipbridgesystemtofullysupportthedevelopment
process from lab studies to tests in realistic environments.
Our system allows developing new software
components in the lab and setting it up on a ship bridge without interfering with the vesselʹs navigational
systems.ThereforeitislinkedtoaNaviBoxtogetnecessaryinformationsuchasGPS,AIS,compass,andradar
information.OursystemisembeddedinLABSKAUS,
atestbedforthesafetyassessmentofnewe‐Navigation
systems.
http://www.transnav.eu
the International Journal
on Marine Navigation
and Safety of Sea Transportation
Volume 12
Number 4
December 2018
DOI:10.12716/1001.12.04.16
764
arewithinthefocusofthedevelopment.Thisincludes
both, the providing of information to nautical
personal as well as new control concepts. The
portable structure of the system allows a
straightforward demonstration and evaluation of
theseconceptsin arealsystem environment,e.g. on
realshipbridgesasthe
systemcanbeconnectedtoa
NaviBox[6]togetnecessaryinformationandrunin
parallel with the real systems. An additional vision
systemsupportsthedesign,development,evaluation,
and demonstration of these interaction concepts
withinavirtualenvironment.
2 RELATEDWORK
In the beginning, maritime simulators have been
mainly
developed to allow mariners training under
realistic circumstances without the potential risk of
harm to a real environment or themselves. Its
developmentevolvedfromrudimentarygraphicsand
text‐based simulation (e.g. port simulator from
Hayuthetal.[8])tocomplex3Dvirtualenvironments
that assist in learning specific tasks (e.g. offloading
maneuvers [16]). A detailed overview of first
maritimetraineesimulatorscanbefoundinthepaper
fromHayuthetal.[8].Thedevelopmenttowards3D
virtual environments was foreseeable since several
papers proposed to use virtual reality for more
immersive simulations already at the end of the
nineties[18],[11].
Butnotonlythevisualpossibilitiesincreasedalso
the purpose of maritime simulatorsextended fastto
cover additional topics like research and
development. Since the motivation of just having a
virtualshipcrashandnotarealshipstaysthesame
forthesetopics.Additionally,asimulationisableto
simulate
aspecificpartofrealityandforthatreasonis
moreadaptivetonewtechniques.
Especiallyfor thedevelopment ofuser interfaces,
different concepts have been proposed based on
maritime simulation. All these concepts focus on
taking the human factor into account for the
developmentprocessofnewinterfaces.Since
accident
investigationshowedthatthehumanerroristhemost
frequentreasonforaccidents[15].Although,thereisa
connectionbetweenthedesignofuserinterfacesand
thecapabilityofnauticalofficerstounderstandtheir
currentsituationandtodecidecorrectly[5].Asafirst
step, research focused on creating simulator
environments to develop new user interfaces.
Therefore, training simulators were adapted and
combined with tools and techniques to set up an
environmentforuserinterfacedevelopment(e.g.the
design simulator for offshore ship bridges from
KristiansenandNordby[10]).With respecttoaspects
of easy access and low price a
simulator is a better
choiceoverarealshipbridge,butcannotcompensate
it(e.g.theimportantfieldwork).Butthegeneralidea
of using a simulator as a valid strategy to conduct
user studies got strengthened by the findings of
HareideandOstnes [7:201].They did acomparative
studybetweena
realshipbridgeandasimulatorfor
navigation training and found no differences in
comparing the eye‐tracking data of both
environments. To use simulators for a redesign to
create more user‐centered solutionsisonlyone goal
ofresearch.Anothergoalisthedevelopmentofmore
unified interfaces that are consistent over different
systems on one or more vessels. Therefore, Nordby
andKomandurpresentedalaboratoryforthedesign
ofadvancedshipbridges[12].
But more than new environments for developing
maritime user interfaces are also new design
principles necessary since the given environment
differsinmanypointsfromothers.
Anapproachfor
radicalconceptdesignispresentedbyWahlströmand
Kaasinen[17].
Forresearchnotonlythesimulatorenvironmentis
relevant also the operator is of high interest. For
example the effect of the spatially distributed space
onashipbridgeoninformationdemandandsupply
[3:2].Inthe
paperfromHontvedtandArnseth,aship
bridge simulator has been used to investigate the
social organization of nautical instructions [9].
Therefore, they looked into training sessions with
nautical students and experienced mariners and
observed their behavior. Such investigations can be
usedtocreateamodelofthecrewmembersbehavior
and simulate it. These virtual nautical officers were
forexample createdinthepaperfromBrüggemannet
al.[1].
TheConceptforourmobileshipbridge wasfirst
introducedbyHahnetal.aspartoftheeMIRTestbed
[4].TheideaoftheeMIRTestbedistosetup
atesting
environment for simulation and physical real‐world
demonstrations.Thefocusisonhowtovalidateand
verify e‐Navigation technologies.Therelatedproject
HAGGIS [13] provides modeling and simulation
tools.Thephysicaltestbed embedded inHAGGISis
called LABSKAUS [14]. It is also mentioned that
testbeds alreadyexistin
the automotive domain but
aremissinginthemaritimedomain.
3 DESIGNOFMOBILEBRIDGE
Inourapproach,wedesigneda mobilebridgetofully
support the development cycle of new software
components. Key to our approach are flexible boxes
calledʺBridgeElementsʺ.
Ourmobilebridgesystem,consistsofthree
equal
segments that can be combined and connected with
eachother.Eachofthesesegmentsisbuildupofone
information and one control element. Whereas the
information element is realized as a multi‐touch
monitor.Thecontrolelementcouldbeeitheramulti‐
touchmonitororasetofbridge
controlelementslike
thrust levers or a steeringʹʹwheelʹʹ. The multi‐touch
control element enables the testing of new concepts
for virtual handles and controls. Every segment can
beoperatedindependently.Thisallowsusingmoreor
less than three segments. The system is highly
configurable, e.g. distance and position
of displays
and components can mimic a broad variety of real
shipbridgeconfigurations.
765
3.1 Requirements
To support the complete development cycle, our
MobileShipBridgeneedstobetransportable.Further,
to fulfill the requirements of small and large ship
bridgesweneedamodulardesign.Thisallowsusto
adaptthesizeofMobileBridgetotheexistingspace
on ship bridges. Our
system consists of two main
components: The Mobile Ship Bridge itself and the
visionsystem.
Our mobile ship bridge was implemented with
regardtothefollowingassumptions:
TheMobileBridgewillbecomposedofmultiple(1
to3)BridgeElements
ABridgeElementshallbetransportableandeasy
toinstall
ABridgeElementthatcanbesetupfastershallbe
preferred
A table to hold the Bridge Elements is not
consideredinthisdecision
3.2 Implementation
ABridgeElementisahardcoupledcombinationofa
computer, a display monitor and a control element
(monitor or
classical bridge controls). The flexibility
for different kinds of experiments is ensured by the
flexiblecombinationofdifferentBridgeElements.
A Bridge Element consists of a flight case
containingthefollowingcomponents:
An industrial computer (Intel I7 processor, 8 GB
RAM,SSDhard disk)directly integratedinto the
flight
case
Apowersupplymodule
Anetworkswitch
Two22ʹʹmulti‐touchmonitors
One monitor mounted on the bottom of the
flightcase,usinganopenframecase
Onemonitormountedinthecoveroftheflight
case,usinganinclinableVESAmounter
Aflexible
cableductforthe monitormounted
intheflightcaseʹscover
A face plate for external power and network
supply
Thefaceplateissplitintoaninputsectionfor
externalpowersupplyandnetworkinterface
A power‐output element allows connecting
different Bridge Elements in
a row (daisy
chain)
An additional network output element allows
the network connection between two or more
BridgeElements
Figure1.TheHardwareplacementinthecase,thecasesketchwithdimensionsandthewiringdiagram.
766
Figure 1 shows the hardware placement in the
case,thecasesketchwithdimensionsandthewiring
diagram. Detailed information on how to build a
mobilebridgecanbefoundinourGithubrepository1.
Bymountingthedisplaymonitorintothecoverofthe
flight case, we can ensure an
easy installation of
Bridge Elements during experiments or
demonstrations. In addition, there is no need for
anothermonitor holdingfacility. Onthe otherhand,
we do lose a little bit on flexibility to rotate the
monitor,ifmountedinsideoftheflightcasecover.By
integrating the computer into the
flight case, no
additionalhardwareneedstobecarried.Ontheother
hand, this will increase the cost for one Bridge
Element by the means of 2/3 of the cost of one
computer.
Figure2. Example screen of Virtual Handles with rudder
andmachinetelegraph.
In Addition to the Mobile Bridge Hardware, we
created a huge set of virtual devices, such as GPS,
VHF, light controls, machine tel egraph, rudder,
rudderangleindicatoretc.thatcanbeconnectedtoa
simulation to populate Mobile bridge with
information displays and controls. The full software
toolkitisdocumentedand
hostedonGithubasopen
source software under the project name Virtual
Handles
2
. Figure 2 shows an example screen with
multipledevices.
4 TOWARDSVIRTUALENVIRONMENTS
Thesecondcomponent,ourvisionsystem,isusedto
visualize a traffic simulation within a 3D
environment. For this purpose, the vision system
consists of three additional displays, which are
realizedbyahigh‐definitioncurvedtelevision
system
but can be easily replaced by utilizing video
projectors. To further ensure the portability of the
bridge system, the hardware of the vision system is
totallydecoupledfromthatofthebridgesystem.
Combined, the two components form a fully
functional Ship Bridge Simulator using either the
open source
Simulator Software Bridge Command
3
orourownin‐housedevelopedtrafficsimulationand
1
https://github.com/tcstratmann/MobileBridge,lastretrieved:No‐
vember16,2018
2
https://github.com/tcstratmann/VirtualHandles, last retrieved: November
16, 2018
3
https://bridgecommand.co.uk/, last retrieved: November 16, 2018
models. Further, the Mobile Ship Bridge supports
commercialsimulatorsoftware.
5 TOWARDSREALENVIRONMENTS
The portable structure of the system allows a
straightforwarddemonstrationofthese conceptsina
real system environment, e.g. on real ship bridges.
Thesystemcanbeeitherconnectedtothesensorson
boardtheshipor
toaNaviBox
4
torunonlivedatain
parallel with the onboard systems. Figure 3 shows
MobileBridgeinuseonourresearchvesselZuse.
Figure3. Mobile Bridge on Research Vessel Zuse (Source:
OFFISe.V.).
Theparallelsetupenablesresearchersandsystem
designerstotesttheirnovelsoftwareandinteraction
concepts in the field. We tested this with our own
researchvesselZuse.
6 USE‐CASESANDAPPLICATIONS
Oursystemcanbeused asamobile shipbridge for
in‐situ studies on in‐duty container
vessels. It is
transportableinanaircraftandrunsinparalleltothe
existing systems. It can be connected to the shipʹs
sensorsor getthenavigational datafrom aNaviBox
[4].
Incombinationwithavisionsystem,itcanbeused
forlabstudies.TheMobileBridgeimplements
afull
missionshipsimulator. Itis alsopossibleto connect
the Mobile Bridge to an existing full mission ship
simulator.Otherapplicationscenariosaretheuseasa
demonstratoronexhibitionsandastangibleinterface
foraugmentedrealitysolutions.Themainusecaseof
Mobile Bridge is to evaluate novel
e‐navigation
softwareandprototypes.
Sofar,wesuccessfullyconductedtwolabstudies
usingtheMobileBridgeasasimulator.Furthermore,
we connected Mobile Bridge to the research vessel
ZuseoftheresearchinstituteOFFIS
5
.
4
https://www.emaritime.de/services/labskaus/navibox/, last retrieved:
November 16, 2018
5
https://offis.de/, last retrieved: November 16, 2018
767
Figure4.MobileBridgesetupas FullMissionSimulator.
6.1 Application:ExploreNovelTouchandTangible
InteractionMethodsforMaritimeApplications
Toenablethefastdevelopmentandevaluationofnew
interaction techniques for maritime user interfaces,
thedisplayareasaredesignedtosupportmulti‐touch
andtangibleinteraction.Bothinteractionmethodsare
supported simultaneously. For the tangible
interaction,wedescribe
twodifferentconceptsinthe
implementation section. One method with a
continuous input of the tangible controller and one
method that only triggers an input, when the user
touches it. This enables a correction of the GUI
orientation and prevents possible misentries, e.g.
throughmovementofthecontrolleronthe
interaction
areaduringaheavyswell.
As explained in section Design of Mobile Bridge
onsoftware sidevirtua l handlesareusedtointeract
withtheMobileShipBridgeviadirecttouchinput.
6.2 Application:StandaloneFullMissionSimulator
Inthisapplication,MobileBridgewasusedasaFull
MissionSimulatorduring
auserstudy.Itwasusedin
combinationwiththeOpenSourceMissionSimulator
BridgeCommand.
6.3 Application:FullMissionSimulatorforSpecialLabs
ThemobilityofMobileBridgeenablesuserstudiesin
special laboratories such as anechoic chambers.
Stratmannetal.usedsuchasetuptocomparemoving
and
staticacousticalpointersinansimulatedacoustic
shipscene.
6.4 Application:MobileBridgeintheField
MobileBridgecanbesetupinparalleltotheexisting
bridgeonin‐dutyvesselstotestnoveluserinterfaces.
In Addition to that,we successfully used a Mobile
Bridge Element to control our research vessel
Zuse
(rudder,machine‐telegraph).
7 DISCUSSION
The strong flexibility of the presented design
simulator comes along with some compromises.
Thereisatrade‐offbetweentherealismandmobility
of Mobile Bridge. On the one hand, the choice of
touchscreens as display and input units supplies us
withanunlimited
flatdesignspaceforvisualizations,
touchandtangibleinputmethods.Ontheotherhand,
we have to deal with the disadvantages of
touchscreensinmaritimeenvironments,suchasinput
problems with wet hands. As the standard
configuration only consists of touchscreen surfaces,
thesystemismoresensitivetobrightenvironmental
lightning
conditionsthannativesystems.
8 CONCLUSION
We presented Mobile Bridge, a mobile modular
platform for testing novel interaction concepts and
software for ship bridges. The platform will enable
system designers to implement and evaluate novel
maritimeHMIapplicationsinthelabandinthefield.
We tested Mobile Bridge in
four different use‐cases,
which highly benefited from or were not even
possiblewithouttheplatform.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We thank the Ministry of Science and Culture of
Lower Saxony for supporting us with the graduate
768
schoolʺSafe Automation of Maritime Systems
(SAMS)ʺ.
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