Past, present, and future of the satellite-based automatic identification system: areas of applications (2004–2016)

WMU Journal of Maritime Affairs (2018) 17:311–345 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13437-018-0151-6 REVIEW ARTICLE Past, present, and future of the satellite-based automatic identification system: areas of applications (2004–2016) Mélanie Fournier 1,2 3 1 & R. Casey Hilliard & Sara Rezaee & Ronald Pelot 1 Received: 29 September 2017 / Accepted: 14 August 2018 / Published online: 10 September 2018 # The Author(s) 2018 Abstract In 2016, the world shipping fleet grew by 3.5%. Even if the annual growth rate remains at its lowest since 2013, the global situation is still in overcapacity (UNCTAD 2016). Ninety percent of global trade, by volume, is done by sea. Monitoring this fleet helps with vessel navigation, informing to help avoid critical situations such as collisions, accidents leading to oil pollution, grounding, or ships in distress, but also because traffic management in congested areas is essential. For system wide management, in regions such as MPAs (marine protected areas), conservation is the key factor, and movements can be monitored and analyzed in order to determine illegal or suspicious activities, or in order to limit and/or divert traffic, to mitigate the risks to species subject to protection. It is among these efforts that the automatic identification system (AIS) can play a key role. Since 2004, this VHF transceiver-based reporting system, imposed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), has shifted from a traditional vessel identification device to a tool used in a wide variety of applications. The most common uses are safety and security; these issues are quite visible in the media and may touch more people on a global scale (e.g., piracy, oil spills). Over the years, AIS has become, especially with the emergence of the satellite-based capture of the signal in 2011, a widely used tool for developing applications such as fisheries monitoring, marine conservation, air pollution forecasting and modeling, ballast water monitoring, invasive species transport, and many more. In this paper, we propose to review the peerreviewed publications related to the uses and applications of the AIS. Keywords AIS . Satellite-based AIS . Literature review . Safety . Security . Marine environment Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13437-0180151-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Mélanie Fournier Extended author information available on the last page of the article 312 Fournier M. et al. 1 Introduction In September 2015, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a workshop on automatic identification system (AIS) applications and data management techniques was organized by the Canadian NCE MEOPAR (Marine Environmental Observation Prediction and Response) and one of its Canadian-based partners, exactEarth Ltd (MEOPAR and exactEarth 2015). The workshop’s aim was to communicate current techniques and approaches for handling AIS data for the purpose of analysis and use in the maritime domain. In preparation for the workshop, a search was undertaken for a holistic review of applications that have used AIS data since it became mandatory (for specific sizes and types of ships (IMO 2000)). Military and research organizations have published literature reviews or reports about AIS progress generally, and more specifically about satellite-based AIS (Hoye 2004; Skauen 2016), the algorithms developed to detect ships (Shaileshbhai and Brahmbhatt 2016), and the integration of synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) and AIS (Zhao et al. 2014); however, we did not find a comprehensive overview of the many uses and fields in which the AIS has been, and is being, used. 1.1 AIS overview In 2000, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) revised Chapter Vof the Safety of Life at Sea Convention (SOLAS) (IMO 2000). In order to limit the risks of collisions and grounding, a transponder1 and communication protocol called automatic identification system or AIS became mandatory for a large portion of the commercial shipping fleet by the end of December 2004. As all ships are not subjected to this “Class A” AIS scheme, the IMO developed “Class B” AIS, that any ship may operate on a voluntary basis. The AIS is a device, which, in its most common form, sends and receives information from a ship to other ships and to coastal authorities according to the AIS protocol.2 The system is mainly used for detection and identification of ships, as a complement to radar. The first publications about the device that we found, from the beginning of the 2000s, are oriented towards safety of navigation and the risk of collision (US Coast Guard 2000; Berking and Pettersson 2002; Berking 2003; Stitt 2004). These papers investigated the implications of the emerging AIS: “Will it replace the radar on the bridge?”; “Is there a risk in relying only on the AIS signal and ignoring radar?”; “What about training the crew on entering data properly or in a way that would limit errors?” Soon afterwards, authorities and research centers focused on the potential of such a device to improve the safety and the security of navigation through ship tracking. As the ship-to-ship signal is limited to 20 nautical miles typically, and the shore-to-ship signal is limited to 40 nautical miles, the military and maritime spatial researchers, as well as industry, began (circa 2004) to develop a satellite-based observation approach in order to increase the geographical range over which ships could be It should be noted that the term “transponder,” used here and in general literature to refer to the AIS hardware units, is not technically correct. A transponder is an automated transceiver that emits a coded identifying signal in response to an interrogating received signal. AIS units have functionality far beyond this definition and may be more appropriately termed “VHF transceiver-receptor(s).” In the interest of not confounding the reader with a new and unfamiliar term, we have elected to retain the term transponder while annotating this issue. 2 Recommendation ITU-R M.1371-5, currently in version 5 at the time of writing (https://www.itu.int/rec/RREC-M.1371/en) 1 Past, present, and future of the satellite-based automatic... 313 detected. The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI) conducted one of the first published feasibility studies about the capabilities of satellite-based AIS (S-AIS), promising a long-range tracking capability (Hoye 2004; Eriksen et al. 2006). Concurrently, a European consortium led by Telespazio, and partially funded by the European Space Agency (Scorzolini et al. 2010), reported on a European study of a space-based AIS receiver. Following the pioneering S-AIS receiver launches between 2007 and 2010, the first reports and papers on the behavior of the satellite-based AIS signal capture were published. FFI initially (Helleren et al. 2008; Eriksen et al. 2010), followed by the German OHB (te Hennepe et al. 2010), pub (...truncated)