Conventional cruise control systems fulfil the function of automatic speed control. A desired speed is selected by the driver, and a control system operates on the throttle to maintain this desired speed. When traffic density is moderate or high, the driver is faced with having to adjust the set speed regularly in order to maintain a comfortable distance from preceding vehicles and will frequently have to brake, disengaging the cruise control. Thus conventional cruise control can become a source of irritation when used in moderate or heavy traffic. If a distance sensor is added to a conventional cruise control system, then it is possible to add distance keeping to the basic speed control function. This forms the basis for adaptive cruise control, which can be further improved if a limited authority braking system is incorporated. Use can then be made of both throttle and brake actuators to control the distance and relative velocities between a vehicle and a preceding target vehicle.

This paper, and the following five papers, were presented during the Telematics Automotive 99 Conference held at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, 13th to 15th April 1999. This first paper sets the scene for the more detailed technical aspects of the later papers. Copies of the full proceedings of Telematics Automotive 99 are available on loan from The Cundall Library.

Globalisation of both markets and supply has been nowhere more obvious than in motor cars. These vehicles create not only the most free economic pipeline known to man but also a revolution in personal freedom. They are unlikely to go away; we have to find ways of living with them by coping with the environmental problems and the many forms of traffic problem: congestion, driving and support skills and car crime. In other areas, notably manufacturing and commerce, automation and advanced communications have enabled radical improvements in quality, productivity and environmental impact. This effect has yet to reach road transport in volume; the environmental and traffic problems are growing at least as fast as the populations of vehicles grow. The risk with such an important enabler as telematics is that it is seen as a plaything for gadget-minded users, rather than a key enabler for ongoing use of the car in the face of unrelenting pressures of congestion and environmental damage.

This paper presents a novel approach to computing minimum-time paths based on a technique originally developed for use in geophysics. The technique is based on a finite difference scheme and is quite efficient in terms of both computing effort and storage. A particular strength of the technique is that it provides optimal paths to all locations in the field, thus being useful in situations where the goal is not known at the outset of the search. Details are presented on the basic technique and extensions are derived to include the integrations of resources (such as fuel store), and to provide flexibility in the objective. Two examples are given: minimum-time planning for vehicles under the influence of drift, and planning to minimise the risk of detection for a stealthy vehicle in the presence of threats.

This paper, and the paper which follows it, were first presented at the IBC '98 Conference ‘Space-Based Navigation Industry’, which was held in London, 11–12 June 1998.

In conventional arable agriculture, position within the field was usually irrelevant! However, the advent of precision agriculture, wherein inputs are targeted according to locally-determined requirements within the field, has opened up a potentially large market for GPS. Indeed, it was the availability of GPS which permitted the development and implementation of precision agriculture – a concept which holds the promise of significant economic and environmental benefits to the farmer. This paper indicates the technical requirements for GPS and presents three case studies where a positioning system is required.

In his Presidential Address at the 45th Annual General Meeting in October 1991, Norman Dahl gave a thought-provoking discussion of the future of the navigator. He suggested that the navigator's trade is not just a changing trade, but a vanishing one. He proposed then, and subsequently in his 1993 Anderson Memorial Lecture (reproduced as the previous paper in this issue of the Journal), that consideration should be given to the future of navigation, the future of the navigator and the future of the Institute.

In this contribution, papers and addresses over the history of the Institute are examined critically to extract insights into navigation applicable to the present era. These are used to discuss and develop the meanings of the terms ‘navigator’ and ‘navigation’.

This paper presents a prototype ECDIS as developed by the Research Group on ECDIS (RGE) of Dalian Maritime University (DMU). It describes the configuration, the functions and the characteristics of the system. The results of sea and land trials are also presented.

There is a great sense of movement and progress in navigation today. The excitement lies in the ability to do things which were not possible with traditional media or at best were difficult and time-consuming to achieve. So this paper is not about the desirability nor the timescale of the ECDIS (Electronic Chart and Display Information System) replacing paper charts for primary navigation. It is about the flexibility and creative power opened up by new technology.