In this paper, we designed and fabricated LED navigation lights which can replace the existing ones immediately and overcome disadvantages due to use of conventional lamps. To decide the best arrangement and position of a LED module, optical systems of existing navigation lights were analyzed and refracted routes of rays were simulated. The electrical and optical characteristics of the fabricated LED navigation lights were measured and analyzed with a goniophotometer. To calculate ranges of visibility, the vertical and horizontal luminous intensity distributions were evaluated in accordance with the COLREGs (convention on the international regulation for preventing collisions at Sea). From the results, the proposed LED navigation lights showed suitable characteristics for marine environment with the power consumption reduced by 90% and the maximum luminous intensity increased by 20% compared to the existing navigation lights.
