The goal of this thesis is to improve pilot understanding of the Traffic alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) by changing the Traffic Situation Display (TSD). This is supported by two objectives. The first objective is to create an integrated, realistic air traffic environment. This serves as an experimental platform for testing and evaluating future TCAS TSDs. The simulator environment includes a desktop flight simulator, background air traffic simulator, and intruder aircraft. The intruder aircraft uses seven dimensional waypoints to robustly follow trajectories and cause specific resolution advisories. Second, the relative benefits of, and potential concerns with, new TCAS TSDs are explored using a structured, iterative design process with subject matter ex- perts (SMEs). Incremental changes to the TSD were implemented into the simulator environment. SMEs evaluated the displays and potential points of confusion were identified. Several display features are discussed and implemented for future evaluations. These include boundary lines of TCAS variables depicted on the TSD and on a vertical situation display, speed lines which vary with the TCAS estimate of time to closest point of approach, and a prediction of the safe altitude target during a resolution advisory. Scenarios which may be confusing or misleading are discussed. These scenarios may be ameliorated or exacerbated by display features. This information is useful to guide both design and certification or operational approval and is a starting place for future TCAS experiments.

A l'instar d'autres domaines d'activités, l'environnement du marin s'est enrichi d'appareils électroniques à des fins d'aide à la navigation et de sécurité. Dans le cas de la navigation maritime, ces dispositifs ont pour principal but de donner des informations sur l'environnement dans lequel évolue le bateau: profondeur d'eau, bouées de signalisation par exemple et sur son état: cap, vitesse, etc. La complexité et le nombre d'appareils à bord des bateaux dépendent de la taille du bateau, d'un GPS portatif pour un jet-ski à un ensemble complexe d'ECDIS, de radar et d'AIS sur les cargos. Aujourd'hui, malgré l'évolution des appareils d'aide à la navigation, les accidents perdurent (échouage et collisions) et sont en partie dus aux erreurs humaines (33%). Il existe 3 grandes causes:- La charge cognitive trop importante. Cette dernière est liée à la complexité des appareils (ECDIS par exemple) [Jie and Xian-Zhong, 2008], leurs nombres et leurs orientations différentes de la vue pont [Prison and Porathe, 2007].- La mobilité de l'information. La majorité des appareils électroniques à bord des bateaux est positionné à un endroit et ne permet pas l'accès aux données en dehors de cet emplacement.- Le manque de pratique de plaisanciers. Les règles de navigation sont indispensable à la sécurité du marin et peuvent être oubliées par manque de pratique et causent des incidents (ou accidents). Dans ces travaux, nous proposons une solution mobile pour rendre accessible Les données en tout point du bateau. De plus, le prototype est basé sur la technologie de réalité augmentée pour afficher les données dans le champ de vision de l'utilisateur pour une réduction de la charge cognitive. Enfin l'application exécutée sur le prototype délivre uniquement les informations essentielles pour une navigation sécurisée. La première partie de cette thèse détaille une étude utilisateur menée pour comprendre les habitudes et les besoins des plaisanciers afin de sélectionner les données à afficher et leur représentation graphique. Suite à cette étude, une analyse du besoin logiciel et matériel a été menée. Le but de cette analyse est de lister les différents éléments pouvant supporter les contraintes maritimes (soleil, brouillard, nuit, houle, mobilité) afin de proposer un appareil et une application mobile sur technologie de réalité augmentée. La deuxième partie de cette thèse aborde le design du prototype (architecture, display) et du logiciel. Cet ensemble a pour but d'aider le plaisancier lors de conditions météos difficiles. La technologie mise en œuvre dans ce nouvel outil est la réalité augmentée, plus précisément Optical See-through. Le principe de l'application exécutée sur le prototype est un serveur proposant des services à l'utilisateur en fonction des appareils disponibles à bord du bateau tout en limitant la charge cognitive du marin. En effet, l'application conserve uniquement les informations utiles et les affiche dans le champ de vision de l'utilisateur, de plus elles sont superposées à sa vue directe sur le monde.La dernière partie, elle, décrit le générateur de carte qui nous permet d'extraire les données maritimes issues de différents formats de carte pour les adapter au format 3D utilisé dans l'application. Ce dernier est capable de placer automatiquement des objets 3D pour représenter le système de balisage, les amers, etc. Ce générateur a été développé pour reconstituer des zones interdites comme les zones de profondeurs, d'interdiction de chasse sous-marine, etc. Ceci a été mis en œuvre afin de répondre au mieux aux besoins de tous types de plaisanciers, de l'utilisateur de jet-ski au yacht et du pêcheur au plongeur amateur par exemple. / Compared to the other activities, the sailor's environment has been enhanced with electronic devices in order to help the sailor and improve the security. In case of maritime navigation, these devices are mainly used to give information on the environment which the boat moves such as the water depth, seamarks for instance and its state: bearing, speed, etc. The complexity and the number of devices onboard depend on the boat size, from a wearableGPS on a jet-ski to a complex set of ECDIS, radar and AIS on a merchant ship. Today, despite the evolution of the navigational aid devices, the accidents still happen and they are due in part to human errors (33%). There are 3 main causes: The cognitive load issue. The latter is linked to the complexity of devices (ECDIS for instance [Jie and Xian-Zhong, 2008]); their quantity and their orientations which is different from the bridge view or the user's field of view [Prison and Porathe, 2007]. The information's mobility. Most of the devices onboard are put in a specific place and the data are not accessible outside this place. The lack of practice of the recreational boats owner. The maritime navigation rules are vital to sail safely but some of sailors can forget some significations and an accident may result from a wrong choice.In this thesis, we provide a mobile solution to make accessible data everywhere on the boat. Furthermore, the prototype is based on the augmented reality technology to display data in the user's field of view to reduce cognitive load. Finally, the application run on the prototype delivers only the relevant information for a safe navigation. The first part in this thesis details a user study conducted to understand the sailor's habits and their needs in order to select data to display and their graphical representation. Following this study, a needs analysis on the software and hardware has been realized. The purpose of this analysis is to list the different elements that are usable under maritime constraints (sun, fog, night, swell, mobility) in order to provide a device and a mobile application based on the augmented reality technology.The second part in this thesis reaches the prototype (architecture, display) and the software design. Both of them aim to help the sailors when the weather is bad. The technology used in this new tool is the augmented reality, more precisely an Optical see-Through system. The principle of the application run on the prototype is like a server, which provides services to the user depending on devices available onboard, while limiting the sailor's cognitive load. Indeed, the applications keeps only the useful data and display them in the user's field of view, furthermore they are superimposed on his/her direct view of the world.The last part in this thesis details the chart generator, which allows us to extract maritime data from different chart formats to adopt the 3D one used in the application. The latter is able to automate the placement of the 3D objects to build the buoyage system, landmarks, etc. This generator has been developed to recreate the danger areas such as depth areas, prohibited diving areas and so on. This has been done to satisfy user's expectations from the jet-ski to the yacht owner and the fisher man to the diver for instance.

M.Ing. / There is a growing need to enhance situation awareness in the maritime environment utilizing new and current technologies. There are numerous ways to enhance situation awareness by employing long-range vision detection systems, data fusion techniques, such as combining radar and automatic identification system (AIS) data and data mining techniques that allow for filtering out anomalies. With the proliferation of high-quality video equipment and cheaper and faster computational machines, there is an increasing need for automated video surveillance as the amount of information available to the operator for processing is overwhelming. It is therefore necessary that only crucial information that may negatively impact mission effectiveness be presented to the operator. Whilst performing surveillance one would be interested in monitoring other surface vessels within the sensor coverage. The detection and tracking of small and slow moving targets having low signal-to-noise ratios is of interest in the maritime environment. This is particularly challenging as influences from the natural environment, such as sea states, glint, whitecaps and clutter, on a target is captured during image acquisition and this has adverse effects on the tracking of a target. A grey-scale based target tracking algorithm using the particle filter framework was developed and tested in MATLAB® (R2008a). The main focus of the work is on the use of dynamic models in a particle filtering framework. The dynamic model contributes to the propagation of the particles in a particle filtering framework of the target grey-scale distribution. The dynamic models investigated are the constant velocity model and an acceleration model. The algorithm was tested with real-world image sequences in the maritime environment. The targets were tracked for the duration of the image sequence and the dynamic model that accounted for acceleration yielded better results when analysing the position error between the estimated position and the ground truth data points. A slight improvement in this error makes a significant difference on tracking a target as targets in the maritime environment context are small. The future scope of the work would then include accounting for more features of the target such as edge cues and/or implementing adaptive observation models to improve the accuracy, stability and robustness of the algorithm for real-time applications.

The primary objective of this research is the development a wind and solar-powered autonomous surface vehicle (WASP) for oceanographic measurements. This thesis presents the general design scheme, detailed aerodynamic and hydrodynamic aspects, sailing performance theory, and dynamic performance validation measurements obtained from a series of experiments. The WASP consists of a 4.2 meter long sailboat hull, a low-Reynolds number composite wing, a 2000 Watt-hour battery reservoir, a system of control actuators, a control system running on an embedded microprocessor, a suite of oceanographic sensors, and power regeneration from solar energy. The vehicle has a maximum speed of five knots and weighs approximately 350 kilograms. Results from four oceanographic missions that were conducted in the Port Everglades Intracoastal Waterway in Dania Beach [sic] Florida are presented. Water temperature, salinity and oxidation-reduction measurements recorded during these missions are also discussed. The combination of a mono-hull and solid wing in an autonomous system is a viable design for a long-range ocean observation platform. The results of four near-shore ocean observation missions illustrate the initial capabilities of the design. Future work aimed to further reduce both the mass of the wing design and the power requirements of the system will increase performance in all operating conditions and should be considered. Furthermore, the progression of the legal framework related to ocean vehicles must be pursued with respect to unmanned autonomous systems. / by Patrick Forde Rynne. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.