In the vast ocean, the Automatic Identification System (AIS) provides the identification of the ships. Under AIS, there are transceivers installed on ships that provide information such as unique identification of vessel, speed, course, position, true bearing, radio call sign, ETA, etc. on the electronic chart display and information system (ECDIS). This set of information is used to track ships and monitor their movement for better navigation, avoiding collision, grounding, managing traffic in congested areas, and even identifying ships in distress.
In the age of ultrafast communication and GPS, it is hard to imagine that sailors once relied on the sky (i.e. constellations) to navigate their vessels in the high seas. However, not every sailor was a Viking, and this led to high chances of the ship landing somewhere it is not supposed to be (read: Christopher Columbus).
Fast forward to the 21st century, and we can do nothing but look back in awe at all the challenges sailors used to face back in the days. Since the 1990s, navigation in itself and shipping at large have undergone sea changes, thanks to the rampant evolution in AIS tech.
Now, humans have the rightful luxury of tracking their fleets on the seven seas with the help of a single click in real-time.
What was initially developed to function as a simple collision avoidance tool has now spiraled to form the heartbeat of global ship navigation? Yes, it is the Automatic Identification System (AIS) that we are talking about.
Currently, over half a million vessels actively use AIS for transmitting vessel data (mainly their location), which then gets collected by a receiver network deployed across the globe. FleetMon alone has a humongous database of over half a million vessels with users across 164 countries using FleetMon.com to track vessel movement.
Gone are the days when AIS used to be a tool for accident prevention. It is now a proven source of information for a wide variety of individuals ranging from maritime businesses that leverage its data to predict their growth, to researchers and analysts monitoring the supply chain.
As such, it is ever more important to know about AIS, at least the basics of it. The blog has been engineered for the same purpose, covering the 10 most important points about AIS and how you could benefit from it.
Navigation in itself is a multi-century old phenomenon, which has been there since mankind discovered what they could do with a piece of wood. However, modern ship navigation has experienced a lot of changes, and subsequent ‘rebirths’, over the last couple of decades.
One such year of rebirth was 1952: For the very first time, vessel routing services got introduced into the industry. 1952 is when vessels were retrofitted with a prototype that would later evolve into the Automatic Identification System (AIS) in the late 90s, something that ushered a new era in maritime navigation so to speak.
AIS data, when clubbed together, gives us all-around insights into the vessel involved, its speed, position, ship dimensions, as well as its draft, helping us identify when the ship was loaded or unloaded with its designated cargo. However, the last point is an application of various data points obtained via AIS, and not available via raw data obtained from the systems onboard.
AIS, as stated above, was originally meant for ensuring navigational safety, but has quickly proved to be a vital source of business intelligence for maritime personnel.
Happy 10th Anniversary, many would say. But this particular anniversary, which recalls the start of a visionary project, is somewhat different. In January 2010, a treaty was signed between the Kingdom of Denmark and the Federal Republic of Germany for the construction of a fixed link under the Fehmarnbelt, the 18 km Baltic strait running between the Danish island of Lolland and the German island of Fehmarn. Yet not everybody in Denmark or Germany feels like celebrating.
in Trendsby Andrew CrastonVisit the Hydrogen Europe online representing the European industry, national associations, and research centers active in the hydrogen and fuel cell sector.
As the world struggles to conquer the coronavirus and overcome the catastrophic economic impact of the pandemic, there have been frequent calls for an environmentally sustainable economic recovery and no return to the status quo a priori. Could green hydrogen and fuel cell technology propel ocean-going shipping into a sustainable, economically viable future?
In early 23 July, Germany’s last commercial sailing cargo vessel in service AVONTUUR moored in the port of Hamburg, returning from her 5th journey across the Atlantic maritime traffic route. The captain and 15 crew members had been sailing for over seven months.
“After over 200 days on the high seas without being able to go on shore leaves and with the constant uncertainty in mind caused by the coronavirus, the crew is now looking forward to finally arriving”,
reports owner, shipping operator, and captain Cornelius Bockermann.
Are you spending more time at home than you would like to? Make the best out of it. We felt like returning something to our users. Therefore we dropped the daily time limits for Open Users. Open Users (free accounts) can use the FleetMon Explorer beyond 15 minutes per day. Feel free to track your favourite vessels all day every day until 1 June – no costs involved.
FleetMon’s My Fleet list is a great way to keep track of the ships you are interested in. My Fleet provides you with a fleet position overview at a glance on the map, both in your browser or on your mobile. And what’s more, the FleetMon start page and the daily e-mail report give you a concise summary of what has happened overnight in your “fleet”.
So, now you started collecting all ships of interest in your My Fleet – excellent! The FleetMon Pro and Unlimited accounts have plenty of space for you. But how to stay organized as your list grows?
We just introduced the My Fleet tag system for this purpose, which lets you sort and categories all entries in your list in a most flexible way:
Agents and suppliers: Organize your list by client, by status, by port of call, by week of arrival, …
Brokers: Organize by owner, type, tonnage, probability, interests, …
Ship spotters and ship lovers: Your favorite coasters from the 1980ies, Icelandic fisher boats, Swedish Navy Ships, …
Ship managers: Organize your fleet by type, by charterer, by department, by size, by year of built, … – and why not keep a list of competitor X and competitor Y?
You name it, everything is possible. You can assign the same ship to multiple tags; and multiple ships to the same tag. The tag system adopts perfectly to the way YOU think and work.
Here is how:
Add tags when adding a vessel to your watchlist…
…so you can easily filter your My Fleet for those ships you are interested in.
Edit and assign tags from within My Fleet by clicking the “tag” icon in the rightmost column. FleetMon suggests tags that you are already using so that you don’t have to repeat yourself.
FleetMon Explorer now gives you quick and detailed information on current weather and sea state conditions anywhere on the globe. We introduced new information layers on
wind speed and direction,
swell wave height and direction,
direction and speed of oceanic currents
which can all be displayed together with live real-time ship movements, on top of satellite maps or nautical charts.
Current wind situation on the Northern Atlantic
MEDI VITORIA passing Azores with destination Philadelphia
Knowledge of sea state and currents help you in voyage planning, alternative routing and fuel saving. The new functions enable you to analyze a vessel’s behavior with consideration to the conditions it is in.
Enhance your situation awareness with the new maps. Be informed about areas with heavy seas. Keep an eye on hurricances, typhoons and cyclones, their impact and development, right together with your fleet’s positions, in one software tool.
Cyclone “Evan” is leaving Fiji Islands…
…and leaves heavy seas southeastern of the island
Ocean currents in the Southern Pacific are heavily influenced by the cyclone, too.
MINERAL NEW YORK steaming against the Agulhas Current
The wind and sea state service is available for subscribers to the FleetMon.com Pro and Unlimited plans (Pro: wind only). For further details, see our Plans & Prices page. Use the buttons “wind”, “wave” and “currents” within FleetMon Explorer to toggle the respective map layers.
the new site is online, the team did a fast and clean job, but we are tired. It is 02:00 o clock in the morning. We will add more functionality over the next days.
You are welcome to comment in our forum. Have fun with the new Site !
