Abstract: A distributed artificial intelligence data acquisition and equipment control system forms a local area network (LAN) over the AC power lines of a vessel for communicating shipboard engineering casualty and damage control information. Each node in the LAN includes a power line carrier current (PLCC) transceiver, a slave processing unit for interfacing with local sensors or equipment and a master processing unit for controlling the formation, transmission and reception of offset-quadrature-phase-shift-keyed (OQPSK) LAN messages. Nodes in the LAN are strategically positioned at various locations throughout the ship and are configured to function either as a Terminal Unit or as a Data & Control Unit. Terminal Units are equipped with a touch screen display and an intelligent controller that provides a user-friendly interactive operator interface through a series of display screen prompts and includes a data base of ship casualty and damage control information stored in a local non-volatile random access memory.