AIDS TO NAVIGATION PRINCIPAL FINDINGS REPORT ON THE CHANNEL WIDTH EXPERIMENT: THE EFFECTS OF CHANNEL WIDTH AND RELATED VARIABLES ON PILOTING PERFORMANCE

The experiment described here is one of a series done for the U.S. Coast Guard to quantify the relationship between variables related to aids to navigation and piloting performance in narrow channels. This is one of several experiments restricted to visual piloting, and further to buoys only. It was done on a simulator built for the U.S. Coast Guard at Eclectech Associates in North Stonington, CT. The variables evaluated were: straight channel marking, spacing, channel width, and intended track. The findings are presented as the means and standard deviations of crosstrack position of transits under each condition. They are interpreted in terms of their implications both for the design of channel marking and for an understanding of the piloting task. A secondary purpose of the experiment was the comparison of performance on the USCG/EA simulator and on CAORF, the Maritime Administration's Computer Aided Operations Research Facility.