Radar interface

Last Updated on Friday, 21 May 2010 16:09 Written by Alison Little Thursday, 18 March 2010 14:11

H Scientific formed a strategic alliance with Simutech Electronics Ltd to combine the dynamic ship simulation with Simutech's high quality radar stimulators and simulators to create a highly realistic blind pilotage training environment.

Simutech Electronics supply PC-based systems which recreate the radar signals that would normally be obtained from the radar antenna, and to feed these directly into a real radar console. Using this approach, the operator is presented with real equipment and the 'look and feel' of the ship system is guaranteed. Alternatively, Simutech can supply a complete radar simulator on a PC.

Ship Sim communicates with the radar simulators, sending information about the own-ship position and speed as well as roll, pitch and heading and rate of turn. Target vessels and environmental information is also sent, allowing the radar to maintain a picture of the scenario as would be seen in the real world.

Two distinct interfaces with the Simutech Radar systems are supported. A generic NMEA interface which sends own-ship and exercise data using predominantly standard NMEA sentences. A binary interface was developed by H Scientific and Simutech for use with Simutech Radar Simulators. This offers greater functionality than the NMEA interface, including antenna information and clutter properties.