Waterway Expert Traffic System

Legacy demonstration, modernized vessel traffic, wake event, and coastal environment monitoring

WETS is a prototype and evolving concept for real-time vessel traffic monitoring, wake detection, environmental sensing, and internet-based reporting. Originally demonstrated from 1989 to 2002, WETS is now being reintroduced as a modern coastal monitoring and information system with new sensors, communications, autonomous platforms, and web-based dashboards.

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About WETS

The Waterway Expert Traffic System (WETS) was developed as an advanced demonstration project to monitor vessel traffic and its environmental effects in waterways and coastal regions. The system combined field hardware, sensor measurements, event detection, and internet reporting to provide useful information for operators, agencies, and researchers.

The original prototype work was associated with support from the Florida Marine Patrol and Nova Southeastern University. Today, the concept is being revisited with modern sensors, communications, autonomous platforms, and web-based dashboards.

We demonstrated a technology years ago that has enormous enablers emerging now. As a research and management tool, expert-system-based monitoring still has great potential. With a modern extension of this demonstrated practical technology, WETS can support a range of marine and coastal applications.

Key Capabilities

Vessel Traffic Monitoring

Detection and logging of vessel activity in waterways using modern sensor and event-based methods.

Wake Event Detection

Measurement of wake signatures and surface motion to support traffic analysis and environmental studies.

Internet Reporting

Delivery of field observations, summaries, alerts, and system status through online dashboards and reporting tools.

History and Modernization

1989 - 2002: Original WETS demonstration period and prototype field development.

1998, 1999, 2002: Formal reports documented the concept, demonstrations, and technical direction.

2021: Renewed effort to connect the WETS concept with the IoT and current technologies.

October 2023 and beyond: Continued effort to present WETS as a true state-of-the-art demonstration concept.

Current Direction: Integration with modern coastal sensing, remote communications, scalable web-based monitoring, and autonomous field systems.

Legacy Reports and Downloads

These archived reports document the earlier WETS work and help connect the original demonstration effort to the current modernization path.

WETS 1998 Report

Early documentation of the Waterway Expert Traffic System concept and demonstration work.

Open PDF

WETS 1999 Report

Follow-on report showing continued system development and field application.

Open PDF

WETS 2002 Report

Later report capturing the mature demonstration-era view of the WETS concept.

Open PDF

WETS 2021 / Modern Return

Placeholder for current material connecting legacy WETS to IoT, AI, and modern coastal sensing.

See Current Vision

Additional downloadable material can be added here later as the WETS site grows.

Current Vision

The modern WETS concept can support coastal traffic awareness, environmental monitoring, wake analysis, and autonomous field systems. It is intended as a practical platform for demonstration, education, and future operational deployment.

In practical terms, WETS can evolve into a connected coastal information system that monitors, interprets, and presents vessel and environmental activity in forms useful to operators, agencies, researchers, and the public.

Expert systems are a class of computer programs that can advise, analyze, categorize, communicate, consult, design, diagnose, explain, explore, forecast, identify, interpret, justify, learn, manage, monitor, plan, present, retrieve, schedule, test, or tutor. WETS was an early practical expression of that idea and is now well positioned for a modern return.

This page is a test landing page for WETS 2026 and an integrated starting point for future WETS site development.