Pilot Personal Unit (PPU) on your personal iPad – top-notch technology in your pocket

Nowadays, a pilot may come on board with only an iPad – thanks to Transas Pilot PRO – a software solution developed by Transas and supporting almost the entire range of Apple’s iOS-based iPad family of tablets, including the latest iPad Air, iPad Mini and Apple iOS 8.

A pilot needs highly precise and most up-to-date, real-time navigation data, and this is exactly what a Pilot Personal Unit, or PPU, serves for.

A PPU would combine latest edition of marine charts with all available updates, as well as approved harbor routes, packaged into a well familiar user interface, providing an additional degree of confidence for pilots, using their modern PPU as an important aid in pilotage.

However, the efficiency of a PPU does not only depend upon the availability of updated charts and precise approaches. A truly good PPU must receive reliable real-time navigation data, including own satellite (GPS and/or GLONASS) coordinates with WAAS adjustments, as well as precise vessel Heading and Rate Of Turn data.

Regulatory framework

Today, there is no commonly accepted international standard applicable to the features and technical specifications of a PPU (Pilot Personal Unit), and it’s hardly feasible there will be such document in the near future. A PPU is generally defined as a personal mobile unit that the pilot brings onboard for pilotage, and takes it with him, leaving the vessel when the job is done.

There is a wide variety of portable PCs and tablets from numerous manufacturers, which could serve as a hardware platform for a PPU and for electronic charts.  It would be very hard if at all possible to certify all such units to a certain unified maritime standard (like IEC 60945, which is used as a standard for maritime equipment). One could introduce the certification for the PPU software, however, the requirements of a regular ECS (Electronic Charts System) are not sufficient, because a pilot needs a number of additional features on top of just e-charts.   

There is, however, a number of local regulations that require the use of a portable PPU in a number of countries. In Russia, for instance, it is the Decree on Maritime Pilots of the Ministry of Transportation No 112 dated July 22, 2008 and amended on March 9, 2010.
This Decree requires pilots to have an individual positioning and vessel identification system, interlinked with the Port’s VTS database.

In addition, a number of IMO and IALA Resolutions, as well as IEC 61993-2 Edition 1 specify the presence of a special AIS connector on the bridge to connect a PPU for real-time navigation and AIS targets data within the VHF range. Such connector, named AIS Pilot Plug, must be installed in immediate proximity to the standard pilot station on the bridge.

Transas Pilot PRO

To meet the above challenges, Transas designed a new product called «Transas Pilot PRO».

Size and weight matter – especially for a PPU. Transas Pilot PRO is designed to work on Apple iOS-based iPad family of tablets, while older PPUs were designed to work on a notebook, which, together with the charging adapter, would easily weigh 4-5 kilograms. Imagine a pilot with a backpack or a shoulder bag climbing the pilot ladder, often in harsh weather, and one would immediately understand the advantages of a light-weight and compact tablet-based PPU.

Mobility is another crucial benefit of Transas Pilot PRO – the pilot has full freedom to move to any position on the bridge, with literally no strings attached: all necessary navigation and AIS data is wirelessly delivered to Transas Pilot PRO over a dedicated Wi-Fi network through a special AIS Wi-Fi Router.

Transas Pilot PRO on an iPad offers up to 9 hours of battery life, including the Wi-Fi reception of AIS and other sensor’s data. This new system allows easy integration with a variety of onboard navigation and communication equipment.

Transas Pilot PRO keeps on getting better: future updates will offer a lot of additional functionality, such as access to tide & currents databases, calculation of Under Keel Clearance, and better integration with Transas’ own VTMS, to name a few.

Sofia Vinarova.

For more information about Transas Pilot PRO, please see the Product Brochure >>>>