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VIRTUAL SIMULATION AND THE ELECTRONIC NAVIGATION DEVICES – THE FURUNO GP-90 GPS MODEL

September 2016

VIRTUAL SIMULATION AND THE ELECTRONIC NAVIGATION DEVICES


THE FURUNO GP-90 GPS MODEL
Jairo Uparella

Abstract

One of the most important devices among the marine electronics equipment in almost any
ship is the GPS (Global Positioning System). Some people feel security when they use a GPS
on board, because it means that, although you don’t know the way, this will guide you to
desired destiny without any problem. But this tourist-expert navigator must be programmed
by specialists of the navigation and global orientation with the knowledge of a certain kind of
mathematical concepts that might be the difference between a nice trip and the disaster. Our
purpose in developing a virtual prototype of this wide-ranging model is to assist seafarers to
be more familiar with a specialized GPS, to know more about coordinate systems (WGS84),
to insert waypoints, planning routes and many others topics that are necessary when one is
traveling close to coast or in the open sea, even if they have any expertise in navigation or if
they are apprentices.

Key Words: simulation, virtual simulation, OpenGL, Global Positioning System, waypoint,
route planning, true motion, relative motion.

1. Introduction

The real Furuno GP-90 is defined as a high-performance DGPS/WAAS navigator that meets
IMO Res MSC.112(73) and IEC 61108-1 Ed.2 for SOLAS carriage requirements, designed for
practically every type of vessel. It offers a wide range of useful graphic and data display
modes. It can feed highly accurate nav data to Furuno radar, AIS, chart plotter, autopilot or
sounder. It features 2,000 points for track and marks, including a maximum of 99 event
marks. It can also store 999 waypoints and 30 routes each containing up to 30 waypoints.

Our virtual GPS GP-90 tends to show these characteristics, allowing the use of this quantity
of points, which can be set on the plotter as if you were using the real one. Among
inscriptions made in the GPS are marks and MOB/Event marks, which permit marking a place
where a suddenly event has occurred, and they are printed on the plotter by the virtual ship.
MOB (Man Over Board) prints a “M” mark whereas marks and waypoints prints a symbol or

Jairo Uparella B.Sc. Computer Science – Specialized Computer Programs & Electronics
Cel: 315-7342855 E-mail: juparella@yahoo.com
VIRTUAL SIMULATION AND THE ELECTRONIC NAVIGATION DEVICES – THE FURUNO GP-90 GPS MODEL
September 2016

icon. While a waypoint defines a place, a sequence of them defines a route to follow with
the ship and can be traced manually by the user.

Fig.1 - GP-90 GPS GUI

Among the typical characteristics found in the models are the orientations of the plotter
with respect to North (NU) and Course (CU), tracking of the ship and the possibility of
recording the own ship’s track, centering the cursor or the display in accordance with the
ship’s position, editing and deleting marks and waypoints, setting destiny by flags as
waypoints and some others features as alarms (Waypoint Arrival, Anchor Watch, Cross-track
Error, Ship's Speed, Water Temperature, Depth and Trip) and GPS settings.

2. Modeling & Simulation

In order to design and develop a GPS as a virtual device, it is necessary to take into account
the main concepts that justify the importance of this navigator, like the geometrical
constitution of the earth, the satellite system circumscribing the earth, projections, and
maps with a coordinate system defined by latitude and longitude magnitudes (grid of
meridian and parallel lines). It can be programmed by means of 2D/3D software that allows
you to put all together (text and graphics), with a good GUI and many ways to replicate
exercises. OpenGL libraries have all it needs to produce that GUI with a little of imagination
to make buttons and LCD screen (plotter), the space where it can show symbols as happen in
the real model. Although OpenGL does not give a support to windows and buttons for this, it

Jairo Uparella B.Sc. Computer Science – Specialized Computer Programs & Electronics
Cel: 315-7342855 E-mail: juparella@yahoo.com
VIRTUAL SIMULATION AND THE ELECTRONIC NAVIGATION DEVICES – THE FURUNO GP-90 GPS MODEL
September 2016

is necessary having some skills on how using textures that represents a button, for example,
the effects when you touch or click on it and the way you will erase or delete the objects on
the plotter. We decided not to program the common assistance that PC’s keyboard offers to
these programs (except the mouse), what makes the user must learn a lot of no-necessary
tricks that never will find in a real ship. In this way, our document for guiding you through
the use of the GPS GP-90 model is the same posted by FURUNO in its web page sectioned as
“Manuals/Documents”.

The task helped us to understand what FURUNO wants to give to end-users. The first task
was to convert a point referenced in earth coordinates LAT LON to a (x,y) point on the map
and vice-versa. This will be used by cursor, the own ship and marks or waypoints that are
inscribed on the plotter, which represents a map in different ranges, from 0.25 to 273.07
nautical miles.

As positioned at origin (0°0.0’, 0°0.0’), the model can be set at any point of coordinates LAT
LON, where the ship have its starting point. Later, to establish the different ranges and
selected by the related key [Zoom In], [Zoom Out], the ship’s position and map are
multiplied by a factor that results in the desired magnification of the map:

For the ship:


glTranslatef ( (v_ship_x)*zoom, (v_ship_y)*zoom, 0.00012 );

For the map:


glTranslatef ( Xmap*zoom, Ymap*zoom, 0.0000);

For the plotters:


if (gps_mode==1){ if (gps_mode==2){
if (zom==0 ) range= 0.25; if (zom==0 ) range= 0.36;
if (zom==1 ) range= 0.50; if (zom==1 ) range= 0.71;
if (zom==2 ) range= 1.00; if (zom==2 ) range= 1.42;
if (zom==3 ) range= 2.00; if (zom==3 ) range= 2.84;
if (zom==4 ) range= 4.00; if (zom==4 ) range= 5.69;
if (zom==5 ) range= 8.00; if (zom==5 ) range= 11.38;
if (zom==6 ) range= 16.00; if (zom==6 ) range= 22.76;
if (zom==7 ) range= 32.000; if (zom==7 ) range= 45.51;
if (zom==8 ) range= 64.000; if (zom==8 ) range= 91.02;
if (zom==9 ) range= 128.00; if (zom==9 ) range= 182.04;
if (zom==10 ) range= 192.00; if (zom==10 ) range= 273.07;
zom1_save=zom; } zom2_save=zom; }

Jairo Uparella B.Sc. Computer Science – Specialized Computer Programs & Electronics
Cel: 315-7342855 E-mail: juparella@yahoo.com
VIRTUAL SIMULATION AND THE ELECTRONIC NAVIGATION DEVICES – THE FURUNO GP-90 GPS MODEL
September 2016

Where,
zoom = (num)/(divi*range);

which was defined for the portion of rectangle used on the screen for the LCD as:

float num=1000-228;
float divi=1852;
int zom=10; // 120 mn

Any object (marks, waypoints, flags, MOB/Events) that is set on the plotter can conserve its
position, which allows users to find them at any range selected. The insertion of all these
objects on the plotters is made according UTC time:

//----------------SYSTEM DATE & TIME


// current date/time based on current system
time_t now = time(0);
char* date = ctime(&now);
// convert now to tm struct for UTC
tm *dtm = gmtime(&now); // UTC

Fig.2 – a) Marks on plotter 1, b) entering of a waypoint.

Although the great quantity of mathematical models that is necessary to create a robust GPS
demand a lot of time of computational programming, the biggest task made in the GPS
simulation was to build the many dialogs and menus that have this model to play its roll.

Jairo Uparella B.Sc. Computer Science – Specialized Computer Programs & Electronics
Cel: 315-7342855 E-mail: juparella@yahoo.com
VIRTUAL SIMULATION AND THE ELECTRONIC NAVIGATION DEVICES – THE FURUNO GP-90 GPS MODEL
September 2016

It has a good distribution where it is easy to find a value, selection, display and many others
aspects of the system, as well, the way to introduce variables as latitudes and longitudes,
speeds, numbers, symbols images, comments, etc.

Fig.3 – The MAIN and Select Display Menus.

Fig.4 –Highway and Navigation displays.

Some values that are relevant to show to users on the GPS displays come from the remote
3D program which control the part of the ship handling. Some variables as SOG, COG, drift,
leeway and ship’s position, are not calculated in the GPS program, but they are sent by the
module for ship motion and objects in the scenario, making this device to operate as a
sensor or receptor of global variables. This makes the virtual GPS be dependent of the ship’s
movements and the ambient as it would happen with the radar or other device.

Jairo Uparella B.Sc. Computer Science – Specialized Computer Programs & Electronics
Cel: 315-7342855 E-mail: juparella@yahoo.com
VIRTUAL SIMULATION AND THE ELECTRONIC NAVIGATION DEVICES – THE FURUNO GP-90 GPS MODEL
September 2016

Other variables as LAT and LON and conversions of these, marks positions on different
ranges, XTE, are calculated in the virtual GPS model.

Fig.5 – Data Display.

Another features mainly taken into account in accordance with the ship’s movements and
display orientation are the relative and true motion which show the way the map or the ship
are placed on the plotters. When true motion is active the ship moves crossing the plotter
(land is stationary) until the LCD border is reached and the ship automatically goes back to
the center of the LCD screen or when the [Center] key is pressed. In relative motion, the ship
is always located in the center of the LCD screen and the map moves (under the ship) in the
opposite direction or heading desired.

In general, the different tasks to achieve in the modeling of the GPS GP-90 are:

Waypoints, Marks, Routes


Erase (wpts , marks, routes)
Ranges and zooming
Plotter 1, Plotter 2 (cursor, border collision, centering, grid)
Event/MOB Marks
Editing waypoints (changing, deleting)
Editing Route Waypoints, Routes (replacing, deleting)
GOTO Settings
Highway, Navigation, Data & Various Displays & Charts Icons
Alarms (XTE, Anchor Watch, Arrival, Trip, Speed, Temp, Depth, DGPS)
Track (Recording, Erasing, Interval)
Unit Setup, Plotter Setup

Jairo Uparella B.Sc. Computer Science – Specialized Computer Programs & Electronics
Cel: 315-7342855 E-mail: juparella@yahoo.com
VIRTUAL SIMULATION AND THE ELECTRONIC NAVIGATION DEVICES – THE FURUNO GP-90 GPS MODEL
September 2016

GPS Setup (System Settings)


Connections ( DATA1, 2, 3, 4, PC, DGPS)
Apportioning memory
LCD brilliance
Trouble-Shooting

The variables found in different displays are:

Altitude (ALT)
Course (COG)
Depth (W.DPT)
Speed (SOG)
Water temperature (W.TMP)

Average course (AVR COG)


Average speed (AVR SOG)
Course error (dCOG)
Cross track error (XTE)
ETA to waypoint (ETA)
Range to waypoint (RNG)
Route time-to-go (RT.TTG)
Time-to-go to waypoint (TTG)
ETA to route
Total route distance (RT.DIST)
Trip distance (TRIP)
Trip elapsed time (TRIP TM)
Velocity to destination (VTD)

3. Teaching and training

It is true that in most cases the operator need do no more than turn on the power to find
position; even for some people this model could be a simple device that can give you the
ship’s position and they would prefer to trace the route as they made in old days on a paper
chart. And maybe they are right when they are used to do it, but nothing as having a
complete system that not only can give you some data and positions but the way to follow
the route with optimum accuracy by setting waypoints in the right manner. Planning the
route and setting the destiny are the main tasks that users in a GPS can do and even better
when this route is traced on paper chart and backed up in the GPS memory.

Jairo Uparella B.Sc. Computer Science – Specialized Computer Programs & Electronics
Cel: 315-7342855 E-mail: juparella@yahoo.com
VIRTUAL SIMULATION AND THE ELECTRONIC NAVIGATION DEVICES – THE FURUNO GP-90 GPS MODEL
September 2016

In agreement with the section Electronic Navigation Aids in the OMI Model Course 6.10,
Train the Simulator Trainer and Assessor, “the simulation of all facilities of a standard GPS
receiver shall be available. This should include display of latitude, longitude, course and
speed over ground by the own ship, UTC, normal navigational calculation functions such as
Great Circle, Rhumb line sailing, 999 waypoints, 30 routes each containing up to 30
waypoints, alarms for X-track error, anchor drag, approaching way point, etc.”

In relation to the previous concepts that users must understand and that some of them
make part of the normal assumptions in the simulation, are the way in that a GPS tracks a
number of satellites simultaneously, their filters, formats, geometry, frequency, band, RAIM,
some sources of GPS signal error, land-based radio beacons, and the many factors showed
by the device, geodetic system, position fixing method, augmentation system, PDOP, VDOP
and how it affects data.

It is good even teaching the way the system is configured with antennas and the possible
connection with other devices as Arpa Radar, ECDIS, AIS, Loran-C, Decca, etc., with NMEA
Interface.

__________________________
NOTE: If you consider any correction (english, definition, etc.) to this text, please let me
know.

REFERENCES

[1] FURUNO OPERATOR’S MANUAL, GPS NAVIGATOR Model GP-90, Furuno Electric Co. 2003.

[2] OMI Model Course 6.10, Train the Simulator Trainer and Assessor, 2012 Ed.

Jairo Uparella B.Sc. Computer Science – Specialized Computer Programs & Electronics
Cel: 315-7342855 E-mail: juparella@yahoo.com

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