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Full text: 28: Functional scope and model of integrated navigation systems

• For the complete Integrated Navigation System, usability for ship operation and safe 
function on board has to be proven. This will be ensured by means of a installation of 
the complete INS on a test vessel and under laboratory conditions. 
This procedure requires much effort because the identification of the functional interaction of the system 
components is only possible during the performance of the test. 
The purpose of this study is to develop a framework for testing integrated navigation systems to in 
crease the efficiency of this process. For the purpose of this, an approach is selected which enables an 
equipment-independent description of the requirements on integrated navigation systems in order to 
take account of the large range of existing systems as well as future developments. With respect to 
tasks, functionalities and function, mode or degree of automation will not be defined. Although the 
analysis is based on a complete automation of the process task, the result of this analysis can also be 
applied to partly automated process tasks. 
A systematised test method which takes account of the specific INS properties outlined above has con 
siderable advantages for the appropriate test authority and the manufacturer: 
• Reduction of the necessary time expended on testing 
• Improvement of the test result, since a more complete test is possible by means of a 
methodical procedure than with the methods normally used hitherto 
• Improved documentation of the test result. 
The application of a methodical framework for the testing of integrated navigation systems can thus 
considerably increase the quality and efficiency of the testing process. 
This present study is divided into three parts. 
In Part A, “Functional analysis of navigational operation”, a course of a functional analysis of the “inte 
grated navigation” process, the functions fundamental to navigational operation are identified. 
In this context, “fundamental” means having considered only those functions which have to be available 
in an integrated navigation system, irrespective of the concrete form of technical translation, in order to 
fulfil the tasks of navigational operation. In the identification of these functions, a hierarchical approach 
is used as a basis: tasks are identified on the basis of the global process task, and from these in a fur 
ther stage are then derived the functionalities which are necessary to fulfil these tasks. Functionalities 
are in turn sub-divided into elementary individual functions. 
In Part B, “Functional model of the integrated navigation process”, a model of the “integrated naviga 
tion” process is derived from the functional analysis. In the course of this, the method of structured 
analysis is applied, in which the functions involved are graphically represented along with their input and 
output information. With the aid of the model it is possible to identify functional dependences and re 
sultant error chains. On the basis of the functionalities, functions and information flows identified within 
the framework of the functional analysis, a “three-dimensional network” is developed, which, in several 
abstraction levels, represents the information flows between the functional units existing in integrated 
navigation systems. 
In Part C, ‘Test requirements for integrated navigation systems”, requirements on the testing of INS are 
derived from the functional model just outlined. In order to ensure independence from concrete techni
	        
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