Security and surveillance systems in maritime navigation is an activity that has a tendency to constant development and improvement, especially in coastal waters. Almost all coastal countries in the world have established vessel traffic services (VTS) in their coastal waters, with the aim of increasing navigation safety, as well as enhancing security and environmental protection. A particular challenge in achieving these goals is represented by maritime areas that have certain spatial limitations and where vessels of various sizes and purposes meet, as is the case in the Montenegrin coastal area, especially in the Bay of Kotor.
The International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) regulates the infrastructure and rules for maritime vessels' security and surveillance system, and among other things, the mandatory navigational communication equipment that vessels must have. However, the requirements of this convention do not apply to all vessels participating in maritime traffic. Thus, vessels, such as smaller boats, tourist boats, boats for sports and pleasure, scooters, wooden and primitively built ships, etc. (non-SOLAS vessels), in accordance with Chapter V of the SOLAS Convention, are not required to have certain navigational communication equipment. The equipment they are required to possess is subject to national legislation and is not standardized. Such vessels often do not have any navigation and communication equipment. Furthermore, these vessels cannot be detected, in terms of identification, by the competent VTS and other vessels in the area, which poses a potential risk to the navigation safety and the security of a certain area. We have witnessed numerous accidents at sea in which these vessels (non-SOLAS vessels) are often involved, especially during the summer tourist season on our coast.
These vessels do not have an automated reporting procedure to the competent service for the control of maritime navigation safety, they do not have the possibility of insight into the maritime routes followed by other maritime vessels in the area, nor can they be identified by the competent service for navigation safety. This is a serious safety risk for the local drivers of these vessels, and especially for the many tourists who come with their own vessels or use rented vessels on our coast.
This project aims to prove the concept of an E-navigation system for non-SOLAS vessels, which would address the mentioned security risk through the use of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, and to develop its prototype, which would validate the concept in practice on the example of the Bay of Kotor. More precisely, by using a smartphone or a dedicated device (the prototype of which would also be created as part of the project), a Global Positioning System (GPS) signal, an appropriate computer cloud platform, and the development of the necessary applications, the E-navigation system would be designed to provide the users of these vessels insight into their route and the route of neighboring vessels, information about maritime routes, dangerous or prohibited zones or locations, and the competent authorities the possibility of monitoring the movement and identification of these vessels.
