IBS Basics, A Practical Guide to Integrated Bridge Systems

Ralph Becker Heins (author)
978-90-831243-8-4
Issued: 2023

During recent years a steep progress in maritime digitization, including the navigation systems can be witnessed. What started out with adding more and more add-on features to ECDIS and a subsequent merger of ECDIS with radar to so called ‘chart radar’ installations, has now become fully integrated navigation and bridge systems. Despite the fact that IBS installations are already installed, in operation and used by the crew onboard most of the modern ships, the risk of operating such systems without proper training is obvious and this has already led to a number of serious incidents.

It is therefore crucial that a thorough knowledge of the bridge systems – its advantages but also its limitations – must be brought to the knowledge of those operating it: the crew on board. Yet, also other stakeholders in a wider sense will profit from knowledge on the ‘new’ integrated systems as when cooperating with the crew, such as pilots, ship inspectors, or maritime authorities.

‘IBS Basics’ explains what integrated bridge systems are, but most of all it aims to transfer this theory to the practical application of these complex systems and therefore contributing to a safer maritime environment.