Aids to Navigation Principal Findings Report

The research reported here is part of the United States Coast Guard's Performance of Aids to Navigation Systems Project. The objective of the project is to provide guidelines for evaluation and design of AN systems in restricted waterways. The major effort has been the evaluation of aid systems under a variety of conditions on a marine simulator developed for the project. This report describes the validation of the simulator by comparing performance data collected at sea with performance data collected on the simulator. Ships were tracked electronically at sea and other data was collected manually in Chesapeake Bay in the approach to Baltimore, Maryland and Narragansett Bay in the approach to Providence, Rhode Island. The conditions observed in these restricted waterways were modeled on the USCCG/SA simulator and pilot performance was compared. This evaluation identifies the strengths and limitations of the simulator and the need for possible adjustments.