On the mathematical theory of evidence in navigation

In most problems encountered in navigation, imprecision and uncertainty dominate. Methods of their processing rely on rather obsolete formalisms based on probability and statistics. Available solutions exploit a limited amount of available data, and knowledge is necessary to interpret the achieved results. Profound a posteriori analysis is rather limited; thus, the informative context of solutions is rather poor. Including knowledge in a nautical data processing scheme is impossible. Remaining stuck with the traditional formal apparatus, based on probability theory, one cannot improve the informative context of obtained results. Traditional approaches toward solving problems require assumptions imposed by the probabilistic model that exclude possibility of modelling uncertainty. It should be noticed that the flexibility of exploited formalism decide the quality of upgrading models and, subsequently, on the universality of the final results. Therefore, extension of the available formalisms is a challenge to be met. Many publications devoted to the mathematical theory of evidence (MTE) and its adaptation for nautical science in order to support decision making in navigational processes have enabled one to submit and defend the following proposition. Many practical problems related to navigational ship conducting and to feature uncertainty can be solved with MTE; the informative context of the obtained results is richer when compared to those acquired by traditional methods. Additionally, a posteriori analysis is an inherent feature of the new foundations. The brief characteristics of a series of publications devoted to the new methodology are the main topics of this paper.