Journal of Marine Engineering & Technology

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Study on fuzzy GIS for navigation safety of fishing

boats

Sheng-Long Kao & Ki-Yin Chang

To cite this article: Sheng-Long Kao & Ki-Yin Chang (2017) Study on fuzzy GIS for navigation
safety of fishing boats, Journal of Marine Engineering & Technology, 16:2, 84-93, DOI:
10.1080/20464177.2017.1291191

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/20464177.2017.1291191

Published online: 21 Feb 2017.

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JOURNAL OF MARINE ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY, 2017
VOL. 16, NO. 2, 84–93
https://doi.org/10.1080/20464177.2017.1291191

Study on fuzzy GIS for navigation safety of fishing boats

Sheng-Long Kao a and Ki-Yin Chang b

a Department of Transportation Science, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan; b Department of Merchant Marine, National
Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

Maritime ship collisions involving fishing boats have often been reported, and the major factors Received 22 February 2016
have been human error and unpredictable conditions. This paper aims to create a set of collision- Accepted 25 January 2017
avoidance measures for operating fishing boats or a vessel traffic service by way of time and space KEYWORDS
management. It proposes a novel safe collision-avoidance safeguarding ring for navigational safety Danger index; fuzzy theory;
between operating fishing boats and merchant ships with a dummy automatic identification system MGIS; safeguarding ring
(AIS) to enable fishing boats to establish a dynamic state when approaching ships under operation
(fishing). The approach method utilises the maximum relative speed, sea state, and escape time as
three linguistic input variables for fuzzy logic control application. After the radius of the safeguard-
ing ring is obtained and shown on a marine geographic information systems (MGIS) platform, the
danger index of two ships is evaluated based on the area difference calculated through the MGIS.
The software was installed in the dummy AIS receivers of fishing boats for experimentation in a Tai-
wan harbour. It was able to enhance the collision-avoidance ability of the operating fishing boats
effectively and reduce marine disasters involving fishing boats.

Introduction
In order to promote the navigational safety and infor-
mation transmission ability of maritime transportation,
IMO (International Maritime Organization), ITU (Inter-
national Telecommunications Union), IEC (Interna-
tional Electronic Committee), and IALA (International
Association of Lighthouse Authorities) participated in
setting up the equipment for the automatic identifica-
tion system (AIS). According to Regulation 19 of SOLAS
Chapter V, this regulation requires AIS to be fitted aboard
all ships of 300 gross tonnages and upwards engaged in
international voyages, cargo ships of 500 gross tonnages
and upwards not engaged in international voyages, and
all passenger ships irrespective of size. The AIS Class-B
transponder is designed specifically for small commercial
boats, fishing boats, and yachts. These are not required to
fit Class-A units, but voluntarily install AIS transponders.
Generally, fishing boats have not enforced the installation
for navigation safety monitoring and identification. This
is because fishermen always keep their fishing location
confidential to prevent other fishermen from obtaining
their experience and secret tactics. This has caused fish-
ing boats to inference with navigation safety, and there
is still no method to solve the problem. Currently, most
small fishing boats have no AIS to make them aware of
merchant ships approaching. When a fishing boat and
merchant ship collision is about to occur, a merchant ship
equipped with an AIS is still unable to transmit navi-
gational information to the fishing boat to prevent the
collision.
When a merchant ship is approaching an operating
fishing boat, a collision may not be the only accident
caused by negligence. The fishing boat could also be
caused to lose its nets or capsize if the distance between
the two ships is small because fishing boats and mer-
chant ships differ in many ways. When a merchant ship
approaches an operating fishing boat, the resulting wake
can affect the operation and can result in net shedding or
capsizing. Hence, if the on-watch crew of a merchant ship
neglects to keep a good lookout, collisions can occur due
to human error. Therefore, it is important to establish a
safe collision-avoidance safeguarding model for operat-
ing fishing boats, especially under emergency escape sit-
uations. If fishing boats are unable to obtain safeguarding
alert information in time, marine disasters will occur. In
particular, no collision-avoidance safeguarding model for
operating fishing boats has yet been created successfully.
Although many researchers have proposed different
viewpoints on collision-avoidance for ships, such as
utilisation of the ECDIS as collision-avoidance system
(Pillich & Buttgenbach 2001), proposal of the fuzzy logic-
based decision-making for collision-avoidance of ship

CONTACT Ki-Yin Chang b0170@mail.ntou.edu.tw

© 2017 Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology

(Perera et al. 2011). However, the literature discussing the
collision-avoidance of fishing boats is still limited. This
study followed previous researchers who proposed ship
domain, closest point of approach/time of closest point
of approach (CPA/TCPA), and fuzzy safeguarding ring
approaches for the collision-avoidance of ships. Good-
win first proposed the concept of the ship domain, and
the portside, starboard side, and stern to define the safe
region (1975). To avoid the collision of two encounter
vessels, Pietrzykowski analysed the ship domain as a cri-
terion for the assessment of ship navigational safety in an
encounter situation in the open sea (Pietrzykowski and
Uriasz 2009). To ensure safe navigation for encounter ves-
sels, Liu et al. employed the prediction model of the grey
theory and used CPA and TCPA as the prediction vari-
ables to predict the relative direction that a target ship
would move next (2006). The range of the safeguarding
ring in this research is determined by fuzzy logic con-
trol using several linguistic variables. The concept of a
linguistic variable and its application to approximate rea-
soning was previously presented (Zadeh 1975). Recently,
Kao et al. employed vessel traffic service (VTS) as the
starting point and the ship speed, sea state, and ship size
as fuzzy linguistic input variables to obtain the radius
of the fuzzy safeguarding ring, in order to finish the
setup of a VTS collision-avoidance safeguarding system.
Similarly, this study is proposed for small fishing boats,
especially, considering the safeguarding ring for differ-
ent fishing nets. About installing such a solution on small
fishing boats, this solution has been entity installed into
the local electronic chart system (ECS) and still evaluated
the fuzzy logic control rules and functions data to mod-
ify the fuzzy model into the look up table for Sun Moon
Lake and Fisheries Agency in Taiwan as actual implemen-
tation. The collision possibility between ships is analysed
through the use of a safeguarding ring, danger index,
and ship safety value to take the safeguarding action ear-
lier, in order to provide the reference information for the
collision-avoidance of ships (Kao et al. 2007).
This proposal considers that the collision of operat-
ing fishing boats is a much more complicated problem,
with factors to consider such as the track intercepting
angle, ship type, ship speed, sea state, ship heading,
crossing time, net hauling time, and different fishing
methods. There are many potential environmental con-
siderations and the uncertain nature of human factors
to consider. In this paper, the fuzzy theory is proposed
for determining the fuzzy safeguarding ring and com-
bined with the marine geographic information system
(MGIS) to develop a display and calculate the plat-
form of the safeguarding ring, in order to create a
safe collision-avoidance safeguarding model for oper-
ating fishing boats. A safeguarding mechanism for the
JOURNAL OF MARINE ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY 85
navigational safety of fishing boats is proposed, which
benefits fishing boat operation, and improves the safety
of both the lives and property of fishermen, while raising
the navigational safety of operating fishing boats.
Several researchers proposed a collision-avoidance
model by using AIS data (McGillivary et al. 2009; Tijar-
dovic 2009; Mou et al. 2010). In this proposal, a safe
collision-avoidance safeguarding model for operating
fishing boats is introduced. First, AISs are employed to set
safe collision-avoidance safeguarding models for operat-
ing fishing boats. After it is stipulated by law, the AIS
Class-B receiver can be installed to improve the naviga-
tional safety of ships. Hence, this paper proposes a fuzzy
safe collision-avoidance safeguarding model for operat-
ing fishing boats, where the area difference of two semi-
circles represents the danger index of collision between
an operating fishing boat and a merchant ship. These
two semi-circles are created by extending the heading
line of the target ship and the safeguarding ring of the
own ship. The danger index value shows the different
emergency levels for the fishermen of operating fishing
boats to escape from the collision risk under different
strategies. However, these problems can be solved using
integrated AIS/MGIS systems with the proposed fuzzy
logic method. In this paper, the fuzzy safeguarding ring
model is calculated based on AIS data, a questionnaire
about the escape time, and the results of an MGIS analysis
and calculation technique for the space and time param-
eters. The radius of the safeguarding ring is determined
by a fuzzy logic control method with several parameters,
including the relative speed, escape time, and sea state.
The proposed collision-avoidance safeguarding model
for operating fishing boats will enhance the safety of
fishermen operating at sea and reduce marine disasters
for any ships and fishing boats. In addition, an auto-
matic emergency transceiver or dummy receiver switch-
ing mode can be widely applied to avoid marine disasters
between fishing boats and merchant ships in the future
by this entity fuzzy collision-avoidance systems.
Research method
Fuzzy theory
In order to solve most of the fuzzy phenomena existing in
the real world, the fuzzy theory was developed from the
foundation of fuzzy sets. It is mainly used to express fuzzy
concept, which cannot be precisely defined, particularly
where there is a better expression to describe the pecu-
liar fuzzy characteristics of human language. The focal
point of the fuzzy theory is to create a kind of mathe-
matical model for a fuzzy concept that cannot be defined
by humans, and then draw the characteristics of fuzzy
86 S.-L. KAO AND K.-Y. CHANG

the defuzzifier is to calculate the inference result as a real

operation amount in order to get a clear output value.
There are no definite defuzzifier methods; these depend
on the characteristics of the problem. Normally, there are
three defuzzifier methods: the centre of area (COA), cen-
tre average defuzzifier, and maximum defuzzifier (Klir &
Yuan 1995). This paper utilises the COA for the following
calculation (Equation (1)):
m
yi µc (yi )
y0 = i=1 m . (1)
i=1 µc (yi )

Figure 1. Fuzzy control system. In Equation (1), m represents the number of quantisa-
tion outputs, yi represents the ith value, µc (yi ) represents
the yi value in fuzzy set c, and y0 represents the fuzzy
things treated by humans, and describe human experi-
output value.
ence and knowledge, in order to be used by computers
(Zadeh 1975; Klir & Yuan 1995). Generally speaking,
fuzzy logic is employed to design a fuzzy logic control Marine geographic information system
system through the concept of fuzzy theory. The basic
GISs are computer hardware and software systems that
structure of a fuzzy logic control system is shown in
can deal with geographic information. A database can be
Figure 1, which includes four major parts:
created from the geographic information in accordance
with the requirements of the user. The user can retrieve
(1) Fuzzifier: As the external language is expressed in
the information, model, or rule from the database. The
fuzzy concepts, its meaning is transformed into
geographic information can be assembled into meaning-
proper language by the fuzzifier created from the
ful information through the analysis functions and sim-
membership function, in order to be used for the
ulation processes provided by the software. The resulting
fuzzy operation.
data can be used for planning by policy-makers (Jensen &
(2) Fuzzy rule base: A set of linguistic expressions is
Jensen 2012). It is possible to apply the GIS concept to the
mainly used to express the control rule composed
analysis and expression of relevant information concern-
of (if . . . , and . . . , then . . . ). This description rule
ing the oceans. This is called an MGIS (Watt & Eng 1999).
provides four major ways to express the experience,
The MGIS created by this study employs the tools of
knowledge, and control strategy:
collection, management, analysis, simulation, expression,
(a) Through the knowledge and experience of an
and prediction to integrate a variety of relevant spatial
expert.
information. The various marine databases and tools are
(b) According to the control behaviour of an oper-
applied to simplify the appearance of the maritime world.
ator to stipulate rules.
After the information is collected and treated, it is anal-
(c) According to the characteristics of a control
ysed and created by a computer as a look-up table. Some
system to stipulate rules.
kind of hardware will need to be fitted by circuit board
(d) By way of self-learning.
design/layout; and the system control algorithms have
(3) Fuzzy inference engine: The fuzzy inference engine
been installed to ECS from MGIS transfer module; there-
is the core of the fuzzy system. It can simulate the way
fore microphones, alarms, etc. have been designed in one
humans think through an approximation inference,
set on AIS/ECS with intelligent control software. Finally,
in order to reach the purpose of problem-solving.
the seamanship training courses should be planned prop-
A fuzzy inference is an inference result generated in
erly for the system operation. The resulting information
accordance with the fuzzy rules. Thus, it is inferred
can assist managers in their decision-making.
from fuzzy Rule 1, Rule 2, Rule 3, . . . , Rule n.
The fuzzy inference process can be understood from
Figure 2, which combined these rightest areas from Research procedure
top to bottom via fuzzy rules.
Membership function
(4) Defuzzifier.
In order to establish a safe collision-avoidance safeguard-
The fuzzy inference of the fuzzifier transforms fuzzy ing model for operating fishing boats, this paper employs
information into clear information. The main purpose of three linguistic variables as input values to create a fuzzy
 JOURNAL OF MARINE ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY 87

Figure 2. Schematic diagram of fuzzy inference by fuzzy rules.

Table 1. Fuzzy input values and output values. calculated and input as fuzzy linguistic variables. These
Fuzzy linguistic linguistic variables are transformed into three member-
Linguistic variable Definition value ship functions: slow, middle, and fast. These are defined
Input values as follows, and the linguistic set is shown in Figure 3(a).
Relative speed Danger degree for relative Slow, middle, fast ⎧
speed between operating
fishing boat and merchant
⎪
⎨1 x ≤ 12.2,
ship µslow (x) = 17.4 − x (2)
Escape time As the operating fishing boat Short, medium, long ⎪
⎩ 12.2 ≤ x ≤ 17.4,
notices the approach of 5.2
another ship, the shortest ⎧
⎪ x − 12.2
time expected to escape ⎪
⎨ 12.2 ≤ x ≤ 17.4,
from the path of that ship 5.2
safely µmiddle (x) = (3)
Sea state Level of sea surface condition Gentle, medium, rough ⎪
⎪ 22.6 − x
⎩ 17.4 ≤ x ≤ 22.6,
Output value 5.2
⎧
Radius of Radius of safeguarding ring of Small, medium, large
⎪ x − 17.4
safeguarding operating fishing boat ⎨ 17.4 ≤ x ≤ 22.6,
ring µfast (x) = 5.2 (4)
Source: This study. ⎪
⎩1 22.6 ≤ x.

safeguarding ring: the relative speed, escape time, and sea

state. The radius of the safeguarding ring is the fuzzy out-
put value. The relevant fuzzy linguistic variables, input
values, and output values are described in Table 1.
The creation of membership functions is described as
follows:
(1) Relative speed (RS)
In order to establish the relative speed between two ships,
this paper uses an AIS to receive dynamic and static
information from those ships. A study of 100 ships in
Keelung Harbour calculated the average ship speed statis-
tically. It found that the average speed of merchant ships
is 12.6 knots, and the standard deviation is 3.1. The aver-
age speed of fishing boats is 4.8 knots, and the standard
deviation is 2.1. The maximum and minimum relative
speeds between the merchant ships and fishing boats are
(2) Escape time (ET)
In order to prevent the capsizing of vessels and loss of
nets from operating fishing boats, the effects of the track
flow and propeller flow generated by the merchant ship
are defined as the escape time, which is used as the input
value to form the safeguarding ring. A questionnaire was
designed for vessels employing different fishing meth-
ods. The escape times with different fishing gear were
also investigated. The different fishing gear included a
single line, long line, trawl net, purse seine, gill net, lift
net, drive-in net, miscellaneous gear, and other coastal
nets. It is found that the average escape time for vari-
ous types of fishing gear is 24 minutes, and the standard
deviation is 16 minutes. The linguistic variables are trans-
formed into three membership functions: short, medium,
and long. These are defined as follows, and the linguistic
88 S.-L. KAO AND K.-Y. CHANG

Figure 3. Sets of linguistic variables. (a) RS: slow, middle, and fast. (b) ET: short, medium, and long. (c) SS: gentle, medium, and rough.
(d) GR: small, medium, and large.

set is shown in Figure 3(b). than level 7 for navigation safety. The linguistic variable
⎧ is transformed into three membership functions: gentle,
⎪
⎨1 y ≤ 8, medium, and rough. These are defined as follows, and the
µshort (y) = 24 − y (5) linguistic set is shown in Figure 3(c).
⎪
⎩ 8 ≤ y ≤ 24,
16 ⎧
⎧ ⎪
⎨1 z ≤ 2,
⎪ y − 8
⎪
⎨ 8 ≤ y ≤ 24, ugentle (z) = 4 − z (8)
16 ⎪
⎩ 2 ≤ z ≤ 4,
µmedium (y) = (6)
⎪
⎪ 40 −y ⎧
2
⎩ 24 ≤ y ≤ 40, z−2
16 ⎪
⎪ 2 ≤ z ≤ 4,
⎧ ⎨
⎪ y − 24 3
⎨ 24 ≤ y ≤ 40, µmedium (z) = (9)
⎪
⎪ 7−z
µlong (y) = 16 (7) ⎩ 4 ≤ z ≤ 7,
⎪
⎩1 3
40 ≤ y. ⎧
⎪ z−4
⎨ 4 ≤ z ≤ 7,
µrough (z) = 3 (10)
⎪
⎩1
(3) Sea state (SS) 7 ≤ z.

In order to express the level of the sea state, this paper

defines the input linguistic variable, sea state, accord-
ing to the international sea state grades stipulated by the
World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The min-
imum and maximum sea states are laid between level 2
and level 7. In general, the harbour bureau will forbid
all vessels from leaving port when the sea state is greater
(4) Safeguarding ring (GR)
The output radius of the safeguarding ring is created
according to the fuzzy logic control method, and its lin-
guistic variables are transformed into three membership
functions: small, medium, and large (Kao et al. 2007).
 JOURNAL OF MARINE ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY 89

Figure 4. Calculated result of fuzzy inference.

These are defined as follows, and the linguistic set is Table 2. Fuzzy rules base.
shown in Figure 3(d). Fuzzy Relative speed Escape time Sea state Safeguarding
⎧ meaning rule (RS) (ET) (SS) ring (GR)
⎪
⎨1 d ≤ 1, Rule 1 Slow Short Gentle Small
usmall (d) = 1.5 − d (11) Rule 2 Middle Short Gentle Small
⎪
⎩ 1 ≤ d ≤ 1.5, Rule 3 Fast Short Gentle Small
0.5 Rule 4 Slow Medium Gentle Small
⎧ Rule 5 Slow Long Gentle Small
⎪ d−1
⎨ 1 ≤ d ≤ 1.5,
Rule 6
Rule 7
Middle
Fast
Medium
Medium
Gentle
Gentle
Small
Medium
µmedium (d) = 2 0.5 (12)
⎩ − d 1.5 ≤ d ≤ 2,
Rule 8 Fast Medium Gentle Large
⎪ Rule 9 Middle Long Gentle Large
0.5 Rule 10 Middle Long Medium Medium
⎧ Rule 11 Middle Short Medium Small
⎨ d − 1.5 1.5 ≤ d ≤ 2,
⎪ Rule 12 Fast Short Medium Small
Rule 13 Slow Medium Medium Small
µlarge (d) = 0.5 (13) Rule 14 Slow Long Medium Large
⎪
⎩1 Rule 15 Middle Medium Medium Large
2 ≤ d. Rule 16 Middle Long Medium Large
Rule 17 Fast Medium Medium Large
Rule 18 Slow Short Medium Medium
Fuzzy rule and inference Rule 19 Slow Long Rough Medium
Rule 20 Slow Short Rough Medium
Fishing boat captains use language to express the size Rule 21 Fast Medium Rough Medium
Rule 22 Fast Short Rough Medium
of the safeguarding ring. Previous experience is used to Rule 23 Slow Long Rough Medium
convert the fuzzy object into a clear, controllable rule, in Rule 24 Middle Short Rough Medium
Rule 25 Middle Long Rough Large
order to express conceptual ideas and experience. The Rule 26 Fast Medium Rough Large
fuzzy rule base created by the experience of the fishing Rule 27 Fast Long Rough Large
boat captains is listed in Table 2.
After the fuzzy membership functions and fuzzy rules
are created, the fuzzy inference and COA method are ring (GR) and two linguistic variables is calculated using
used to calculate the radius of the safeguarding ring. the Matlab fuzzy toolbox. The resulting surface diagrams
When the relative speed is 18.7 knots, escape time is 18 of the output values on the MGIS platform are shown in
minutes, and sea state is 3.43 for an operating fishing Figure 5. From the mapping diagrams of the different lin-
boat, based on the experience of these fishing boat cap- guistic variables in Figure 5(a–c), it is apparent that the
tains, when rules 2, 3, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17 radius of the safeguarding ring has a relative correlation
are triggered and the centre of gravity method is used, the with the different linguistic variables.
safeguarding radius will be 1.56 nautical miles. The cal-
culated result of the fuzzy inference is shown in Figure 4.
Collision danger analysis
According to the fuzzy safeguarding ring model, the size
of the safeguarding ring is determined by three linguis- This paper uses the fuzzy logic control method to derive
tic variables (relative speed, escape time, and sea state). the radius of a safeguarding ring for operating fishing
The mapping diagram between the fuzzy safeguarding boats. An AIS Class-B or AIS receiver can be used to
90 S.-L. KAO AND K.-Y. CHANG
Figure 5. Surface diagrams of output values. (a) Escape time and relative speed, (b) sea state and relative speed, and (c) escape time and
sea state.
watch for ships automatically. The MGIS is used as the
platform to show the collision safeguarding information
for merchant ships and fishing boats. When an operat-
ing fishing boat receives a collision signal alert, the most
important information is the danger level and what the
captain should do first. It is necessary to determine a
mechanism for indicating the danger index (e.g. green
light, yellow light, and red light with different alarms) for
captains of operating fishing boats, who have no time to
watch for potential navigation dangers. The MGIS is used
to calculate and show the area difference (AD) caused by
the course line of a merchant ship that crosses to safe-
guarding ring of a fishing boat. The AD is used to obtain
the danger index relationship between two approaching
ships by calculating the area difference on the left-side
(A1 ) and right-side (A2 ) semi-circles. A collision alert is
also proposed for the navigational safety of the operating
fishing boats.
As shown in Figure 6, when cd expresses the track of
the target ship (TS) crossing the safeguarding ring of the
own ship (OS), areas A1 and A2 will be resulted. The
danger index (DI) can be calculated by subtracting the
minimum area from the maximum area, and dividing by
the maximum area, as shown in Equation (14). It has a
range of 0–1, and we know that each semicircle area will
be a part of the safeguarding ring. Thus, if the course line
of the target ship crosses to the centre of the own ship,
the danger index will be 1, whereas if the course line of
the target ship does not cross the safeguarding ring, then
the danger index will be 0. The danger index shows the
different emergency levels calculated by Equation (14). It
is very clear that 1 is under the most dangerous situation,
0 is under the less dangerous situation, and as the course
line of the target ship approaches the centre of the own
ship, the dangerous situation will be increased, as shown
by this mechanism.
Max{ A1 , A2 } − Min{ A1 , A2 }
DI = 1 − . (14)
Max{ A1 , A2 }

Figure 6. Schematic diagram of collision danger.
Simulation and analysis
This section will use actual cases to implement the safe
collision-avoidance safeguarding model for operating
fishing boats. The MGIS will be used as the platform for
Figure 7. Safeguarding radius diagram of operating fishing boats. (a) Single line fishing boats, (b) long line fishing boats, (c) trawler, (d)
purse seiner fishing boats, (e) gill net fishing boats, (f) lift net fishing boats, (g) drive-in net fishing boats, (h) miscellaneous fishing gear
and (i) other coastal nets.
JOURNAL OF MARINE ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY 91
the simulation and analysis of fishing boats with different
operational practices. When target ships are approaching
from different directions, the mechanism of the collision-
avoidance safeguarding ring will be activated.
Safeguarding radius and danger index
Fishing boats normally use nine fishing methods: a sin-
gle line, long line, trawl net, purse seine, gill net, lift net,
drive-in net, miscellaneous gear, and other coastal nets,
which are investigated in this study. When a merchant
ship approaches an operating fishing boat, the safeguard-
ing radius and danger index will provide a collision-
avoidance mechanism. The fuzzy logic control method is
applied to calculate the safeguarding radius of the oper-
ating fishing boats, and it is transferred into the MGIS
platform for simulation and analysis. Table 3 lists the
encounter situations for operating fishing boats and mer-
chant ships. Figure 7 shows nine different safeguarding
92 S.-L. KAO AND K.-Y. CHANG

Table 3. Safeguarding radius and danger index of operating fishing boat.

Operation model fuzzy value Single line Long line Trawl net Purse seine Gill net Lift net Drive-in net Miscellaneous gear Other coastal nets
Relative speed (knots) 17 20 20 17 22 15 17 18 17
Escape time (minutes) 10 19 36 31 24 30 25 8 14
Sea state (levels) 2 5 5 4 3 6 4 2 5
Safeguarding radius (nautical miles) 1.5 1.56 1.65 1.6 1.56 1.54 1.53 1.5 1.5
Danger index 0.37 1 0.56 0.64 0.39 0.52 0.47 0.21 0.71

Figure 8. Safeguarding diagram for future VTS monitoring of ships. (a) Present VTS monitoring and (b) future VTS simulating and
monitoring.

radii for the MGIS platform calculated in accordance
with the fuzzy theory.
This study uses the MGIS as the interface of the sim-
ulation platform. The radius of the safeguarding ring of
an operating fishing boat is calculated using the fuzzifier,
fuzzy rule base, fuzzy inference engine, and defuzzifier,
in accordance with the linguistic values for the required
escape time, sea state, and relative speed of an oper-
ating fishing boat in the collision-avoidance safeguard-
ing model. The MGIS is employed to collect, manage,
analyse, simulate, display, and predict the various pieces
of information on the computer platform, in order to
demonstrate the radius of the safeguarding ring for the
navigational safety of an operating fishing boat. The
mechanism of the safeguarding ring is shown in the
simulation.
Monitoring fishing boats on VTS
As shown in Figure 8(a), the on-duty VTS staff can
only monitor merchant ships with AIS (Class-A) and are
unable to identify the dynamic states of fishing boats
without AIS. If the government requires fishing boats
to install AIS (Class-B) in the future, the VTS can be
combined with the safe collision-avoidance safeguarding
model for operating fishing boats, provided by this study,
to display fishing boats with their own safeguarding
rings (shown in red). The simulated results are shown in
Figure 8(b).
Conclusions and recommendations
This research utilised the fuzzy logic control method and
MGIS to create a set of safe collision-avoidance safe-
guarding models for operating fishing boats. The escape
time of different operating fishing boats, relative speed of
two ships, and sea state were used to calculate the fuzzy
radius of a safeguarding ring based on the experience of
captains and fuzzy rules. A new mechanism involving
automatic safeguarding rings was proposed for operat-
ing fishing boats to set up an AIS Class-B or dummy AIS.
Moreover, the MGIS platform was used to calculate the
area differences of safeguarding rings as the danger index
of each ship to provide safeguards for the navigational
safety of operating fishing boats.
Based on the collision-avoidance safeguarding model
for operating fishing boats presented in this paper,
marine casualties, including the collisions and net shed-
ding of operating fishing boats, can be avoided as a
result of the effect of the track flow and propeller flow
generated by merchant ships. When the potential for a
collision exists, a danger index is provided to the oper-
ating fishing boats in order to facilitate decision-making
to ensure navigational safety. In addition, this paper
employed the MGIS as the platform to simulate fish-
ing boats equipped with an AIS Class-B or dummy AIS.
The mechanism for navigational safety on operating fish-
ing boats was simulated at the biggest fishery harbour
in northeast Taiwan using real-time fishing boat infor-
mation via dummy AIS receivers. This system has been

entity installed into the local ECS and still evaluated the
fuzzy logic control rules and functions data to modify the
fuzzy model into the look up table. Also, the system has
been installed in Taiwan Coast Guard “New Taipei ship”
(1800 tons) since 2013, a brief outline /details concerning
the envisaged practical implementation and Chinese user
manual all are accomplished completely. Thence, this
successfully established the safeguarding ring, danger
index, and escape time for the VTS monitoring of fishing
boats.
The simulation showed that these three collision-
avoidance alert indices represent a more effective and
safe model for merchant ships and operating fishing
boats in the future, if fishermen acknowledge that trans-
mitting their AIS information under emergency condi-
tions is necessary. Therefore, an automatic AIS switch-
ing function for a collision-avoidance alert system is the
next research issue. The collision-avoidance safeguard-
ing model for operating fishing boats proposed in this
paper will combine well with the future VTS monitoring
of ships and the establishment of effective and concrete
alternatives.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the
authors.
ORCID
Sheng-Long Kao http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4035-0406
Ki-Yin Chang http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6289-9451
JOURNAL OF MARINE ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY 93
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