Escape Time: The Crucial Factor in Collision Avoidance Situations and Systems

Abstract

Last year this Journal contained two articles by the writer in which he suggested the potential of fully automated radar plotting systems (FARP) in aiding collision avoidance. This was done by considering a number of past collisions and showing how different the behaviour of the ships involved might have been had they been using FARPs. This was an operational study and not a statistical analysis. He followed the line taken in previous articles starting as far back as 1965 and continuing in 1970 with some details of earlier automatic plotters and in 1972 with a comparison of manual and automatic plotting capabilities. In 1974 and 1975 there was a comparison of the different philosophies embodied in the later FARPs leading up to the studies of past collisions in 1977.