A discussion on the extent to which automation can usefully be introduced into navigational procedures took place at a technical session of the Institute in London on 25 April 1964. Automation in the sense intended may be defined as the use of machines which derive or accept navigational information, and operate on it to provide a function for the control of the vessels or aircraft. Automatic devices which are parts of individual machines (such as the time averager on a bubble sextant, or the true motion facility for radar) may be excluded.