The ICARUS portal: An aid to improve safety of navigation

Abstract

Leisure ships and non SOLAS (International Convention for Safety of Life At Sea) ships as fishing vessels or small tugs, are not subjected to International Maritime Organization (IMO) standards related to the equipment, but by the classification societies through additional requirements related to the control centre physical distribution.

The ICARUS concept tries to provide to the end users, a practical tool supplying information from the books collection on board like Pilot books and others as well as meteorological information and weather forecasting, all integrated in an internet portal, accessible from portable devices like the latest generation mobile phones or palms. GPS or positioning systems will make possible to update information and selected screens will display data required by means of a complete menu. Today communication and internet based technologies with the support of GIS technologies have created a very friendly environment. XML and JAVA technologies have been used for the data interchange and software development in the end user´s application.