Historical Position Measurement Validation and Correction using AIS Data - An Account from a Larger Shipping Company

Accurate position measurements are extremely valuable in the shipping industry for various reasons such as safety (collision avoidance), fuel saving (weather identification), punctuality (route prediction), etc. Although GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receivers installed on-board the ships are proven to be highly accurate, the data collection process may occasionally be problematic, mainly due to the complexity of the measurements and the decimal precision that is required. Data was collected from 3 years of operations of 228 Maersk Line container vessels and an analysis reveals that there is a substantial amount (≈20%) of historical position measurements sent to shore that does not reflect reality. With this study, the authors initially identify the source of the faulty logged position measurements, then they categorize them into segments and finally they apply an interpolation methodology in order to validate and correct them by using AIS (Automatic Identification System) data.