SEASON - Satellite Early Alerting for Safety of Navigation

SEASON aims at relying on VDES (VHF Data Exchange System) to support the diffusion of EWSS (Early Warning Satellite Service) in the maritime environment and, thus, to improve safety and security of the navigation. The concept of the proposed solution is based on a VDES equipment with an intergrated EWSS receiver. The VDES standard is the successor of AIS (Automatic Identification System), an important system largely used in the maritime world, introduced in 2002. AIS was initially conceived for collision avoidance and was mandatory for SOLAS (Safety Of Life At Sea) vessels (above 500 gross tonnage).

AIS was then expanded to encompass other users (fishing, fleets, inland shipping, recreational vessels) and successively evolved into safety, security and tracking applications (AIS AtoN, AIS SART, AIS MOB, AIS EPIRB, Satellite tracking, etc).

SEASON is to develop a new VDES equipment with the capacity to decode Emergency Galileo Messages (EWM) and display notifications to seafarers. A VDES device will be integrated with a GNSS receiver, Galileo compliant, to which the capability to decode the EWSS information will be added, together with the possibility to inform the user through an audio/visual alert. To do this, the device will be equipped and intergrated with a display and sounder. Moreover, thanks to the digital nature of the VDES, the EWSS information exchange may be integrated with, and portrayted on, external systems on-board, such as the integrated bridge.

Challenge and technical solution

Some of the challenges for portable application would be the dimensions of the antenna and the power consumption, in this case the proposed solution is based on a device that will ba carried on the board of vessels, thus the antennas will be installed on the vessel and are not considered a critical aspect. Regarding the power consumption the proposed solution can be considered as a "semi-fixed" installation, in the sense that it will rely on the vessel power source, however the vessel itself, while in navigation, shall be able to count on its own power reverse to feed all the onboard system including the VDES/EWSS.