Graphical Presentation of AIS Information on Ships

This paper describes a research project carried out for the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, and Housing to evaluate the graphical presentation of AIS information. The implementation of AIS on ship bridges requires a suitable presentation and integration of its information in the bridge information systems. To support the decision which symbols should be used for the presentation of AIS information two experiments were conducted with simulated traffic scenarios on ECDIS and on Radar with mariners as subjects. Additionally, a questionnaire was administered and analyzed. Results show higher detection performance for the orientated triangle symbol as ship symbol, which also was rated higher in the subjective preference analysis than the diamond shaped symbol. The results for symbols for the display of course and speed and the heading information led to the conclusion to display the vector as plain line and the heading as dashed line with a flag indicating the rate of turn. A draft for AIS symbols was recommended.