Highlander’s integrated navigation system HLD-INS600 is the means by which all of the ship’s navigation and propulsion devices work together as one entity.  Better watch standing and safer navigation is the outturn.

Work stations situated at the main navigation console, chart table and bridge wings are essentially identically built display-control units on a single high-speed network.  Each of the navigational tasks can be carried out at any one of these workstations: collision avoidance, route monitoring, route planning and alert management. Every bit of navigation control data is seen at one place without having to walk around to scattered display devices.

Alert management is one of the most vital aspects of the INS philosophy.  Every alert (an alert is any abnormal condition) is classified by the INS, according to its relative urgency, as an alarm, a warning or a caution.  Each of the three types is reported differently in terms of the visual and audible signals emitted and the messages displayed.  Deliberately controlling alerts in this way does away with the confusion of bridge alarms sounding off together, drowning each other out.  High priority alerts are announced with greater urgency than less important ones.

The information handled by the INS includes: Radar, AIS, ECDIS, heading, rate-of-turn (ROT), course (COG), depth (under keel clearance), position, speed (STW and SOG), rudder angle, propulsion data, true and relative wind direction and speed, time and distance to wheel-over or to the next waypoint, steering and speed control mode and Navtex messages.

The INS provides for navigation control to be exercised both manually and automatically.