Maritime Simulation News

(skycontrol.net)

For those who are interested in cutting-edge night training, Barco will demonstrate the realistic stimulated night vision capabilities of the BarcoReality SIM 5plus. Also with the SIM 5plus, Barco will exhibit a multi-channel, high-fidelity maritime application on the curved-wall Reality Center to immerse users in the simulated environment; Barco’s portable xRACU multi-system control tool will operate, calibrate, and configure the system. Finally, Barco will give live demonstrations of SimCAD, Barco’s proprietary design tool which efficiently models visual display parameters and customer requirements. Demonstrations will run throughout the week.

Link: Barco

(pia.gov.ph)

San Narciso, Zambales (12 September) — The Philippine Merchant Marine Academy (PMMA) campus will soon raise the country’s first maritime research center intended for Filipino midshipmen, students, researchers, even professional in seafaring industry, Rear Admiral Fidel Dinoso announced.

This project will be in close cooperation with the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), which will be tapped as one of the conduits to gather books and other reference materials for the library, and later converted into maritime rearch center.

Feliciano Salonga, SBMA Chairman, escorted shipping industrialist Bienvenido Lim who brought along with him volumes of maritime books which will be stored at the PMMA library.

At present PMMA is undertaking modernization program like setting world-class simulator building to house the Full Mission Bridge, Engine and Cargo Handling Simulators. All of these simulators passed the highest quality of international seafaring standards. (PIA Zambales)

(bymnews.com)

Thursday, 24 August 2006
Association news:

Although simulators are used for a variety of purposes, a survey of members of the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) reveals that their primary use is for training.

Simulation covers a wide range of activities, including emergency scenarios, but IMCA members’ primary use of simulators is for bridge/vessel simulation, DP and ROV purposes. One of the diving contractor questionnaire responses showed that in their case simulation was of a hyperbaric chamber for the benefit of medic training.

“The results of our interesting survey are published in ‘The Use and Requirements for Simulators in Training and Operations’ (IMCA C 009),” says Hugh Williams, Chief Executive of IMCA, which represents the interests of well over 300 marine contractors in 35 countries. “During 2003, IMCA’s Training, Certification & Personnel Competence (TCPC) Committee decided that a study on simulator usage would be beneficial and included it in its work programme for 2004. The resulting questionnaire comprised 30 questions covering both simulators themselves and related personnel issues.

“The questions covered: the use and functionality of simulator systems; realism of simulation; possible future use of simulators; the complex relationship between trained personnel, simulator training itself and actual operations; training methodologies, including class sizes; and respondents’ considerations of the future of simulator training.”

Twenty-three different members responded to the questionnaire during 2004 and 2005. A breakdown of responses by type of organisation showed that there were eight training providers, four subsea engineering contractors, including ROV operators; two diving contractors; two drilling contractors; three vessel operators, a geophysical survey contractor and a crane vessel operator. Two organisations provided two responses each to the questionnaire, from different business units operating in different geographical areas.

“We have analysed the responses received in full, and the key findings are summarised in our new publication,” explains Hugh Williams. “This includes how members currently use simulators, requirements in terms of equipment, realism and the experience of those conducting simulator training, how simulator training fits in to general requirements for training and experience and members’ views on future needs and simulator development.

“Simulator users expect that future equipment will be even more realistic through more sophisticated systems e.g. 3D, virtual reality and interactive devices. There is clearly scope for dialogue between users, training providers and simulator designers to optimise these developments which IMCA wants to take forward.

“Our TCPC committee believes simulators to be a key and growing part of many areas of our industry. IMCA is eager to promote dialogue across the industry on the topic for everyone’s benefit.”

Copies of IMCA C 009 are available for downloading from the IMCA members-only website with additional printed copies available to members priced at £5 each; and to non-members at £10.

(bymnews.com)

Transas Scandinavia AB has recently emerged as the final winner in the tender process for the public procurement of a new Full Mission Ship Bridge Simulator. Issued by the Department of Shipping and Marine Technology at Gothenburg’s Chalmers University, the procurement was based on an invitation to tender which began in autumn 2005.

The simulator is intended for use by external customers (such as training of the ship’s bridge team, pilots and tug masters), as well as for investigation, research, design and master classes. The project was won under a heavily regulated tender process, which saw Transas compete with other top flight companies in the industry.

The simulator itself is able to simulate any type of vessel, including high speed vessels and tugs. The scope of supply includes both primary and secondary bridges including a built-in decision support system, a desktop bridge station and an interface to SSPA hydrodynamic ship models database.

As a Full Mission Ship Bridge Simulator, the system also meets the requirements of the standards of training and certification for Watch keeping (STCW’95) convention.

(fishupdate.com)

ABERDEEN Harbour Board is to upgrade its ship’s bridge simulator to reflect industry trends and to meet its own and third party requirements for future training.

Since the original simulator was installed at the Board’s Blaikies Quay facility in 2002 at a cost of £150,000, it has been used extensively in the training of Board pilots and other marine staff in port operations and emergency scenarios.

It is also being used increasingly on a commercial basis for training and assessing pilots from other ports and crews of offshore oil industry safety standby vessels.

The simulator is to be relocated to the Board’s new Marine Operations Centre at North Pier when operating software and some of the hardware will be upgraded.

The Board’s Operations Director & Harbour Master, Captain Ray Shaw, said: “The simulator is a valuable tool, and we expect to undertake more in-house training in the future. The enhanced equipment will make an increased contribution to operations and safety at the port, and also to marine activities undertaken by others.”

The improved graphics will give a far more realistic appearance to the display on a curved screen, while the addition of new, reversible vessel controls will allow ship models to be operated from both ends of the wheelhouse and will reflect the equipment installed on modern oil support vessels and tugs.

An additional smaller ship’s bridge is also to be added, allowing training to include the interaction between a large vessel and a tug or a standby vessel and her daughter craft.
The upgrade is costing around £150,000, with the contract for the work awarded to Transas Marine.

(bymnews.com)

The Kongsberg Maritime European User Conference 2006 (UC 2006) took place on the island of Vlieland, Holland, June 22nd ““ 24th. Over 70 delegates from training institutes around Europe attended the conference, which is one of three held every year as a forum for discussion of maritime training and simulation.

UC 2006 was co-hosted by the Maritime Institute Willem Barents at Terschelling. The theme of the conference was Simulation and the Return On Investment, which reflects Kongsberg Maritime’s efforts to create simulation systems that maximise its customers return on investment.

The two day conference started with an introduction by Mark Treen, Sales & Marketing Manager, Kongsberg Maritime Simulation, and Captain Stephen Cross, Schools Director, Maritime Institute Willem Barents. This was followed by live demonstrations on the impressive suite of Kongsberg Maritime simulators at the Institute.

The day also featured specific customer user experiences, a discussion on the new ‘floating’ licence for desktop simulators and a presentation by former Kongsberg Maritime simulation expert, Per Branstad on the evolution of maritime training. It was rounded off with a technology briefing by senior personnel on the mathematical aspects of advanced modelling and high-end simulation.

Day two started with in-depth presentations by Kongsberg Maritime simulator users on specific simulation areas including fast ferry and ownship to ownship tugging. This was followed by a close look at the new support concept for Kongsberg Maritime simulation, the Long Term System Support Program (LTSSP), which has been designed to ensure continuous simulator availability.

The day also featured a presentation on distance learning and separate product workshops, which gave simulator users the chance to discuss at length the direction of the next generation of simulator product enhancements. This consultative process has proven extremely successful as it enables Kongsberg Maritime to ensure a minimal functionality gap between customer expectation and future products.

“The User Conference provides the platform for open dialogue, an opportunity to guide our future innovation and to share industry related issues amongst the key players,” comments Mark Treen, Sales and Marketing Manager, Kongsberg Maritime. “The success of this year’s conference is testimony to the efforts of the many hands and heads that made it possible, and of course, the quality and enthusiasm of the delegates that keep returning, time and again.”

Konsgberg Maritime will hold two more simulator Users Conferences in 2006, in Asia and the USA.

(usatoday.com)

RENO (AP) “” As a teenager, Ryan Leigh loved video games.

He still does, but some things have changed. Leigh has grown up. His games are serious.

Leigh is a graduate student in computer science at the University of Nevada, Reno, developing software programs for the Navy that simulate everything from terrorist attacks in the Persian Gulf to erratic sail boats on San Diego Bay.

“I play games and I work on them,” Leigh said. “The circle is complete.”

Leigh belongs to a team of six UNR students led by three professors that’s using sophisticated technology to improve training at the Navy’s Surface Warfare Officers School in Newport, R.I.

It’s where officers serving aboard aircraft carriers, destroyers and other vessels learn to react in a variety of situations, from overseas combat to maneuvering around dozens of weekend pleasure craft in a crowded home port.

“In San Diego harbor, we’re mostly concerned with drunk boaters,” said Lt. Ryan Aleson, the computer simulations officer at the warfare school. “We have to operate in high density areas. That’s our mission.”

So, Leigh and the rest of the UNR computer team create a three-dimensional San Diego, with hundreds of boats and ships moving in different directions ?s experienced Navy captains at the helms of some, but Saturday afternoon skippers sailing the rest.

“My interest is computer games,” said Chris Miles, another of the computer science grad students. “That’s what this is, games.”

With a purpose.

“Drive a ship in a harbor with hundreds of boats without hitting anything,” said Miles, explaining the San Diego scenario. “It’s the most interesting work. These are incredible challenges.”

In other parts of the world, challenges might include suicide attackers in small boats. Anything can happen in the computer simulations. That’s the whole idea.

“We don’t want them to follow a pre-planned script,” said Aleson, who was at UNR recently to evaluate progress on the software development that started in 2003. “We’re getting to the point where we’re getting realistic behaviors.”

The Navy asked for UNR’s help because simulations were limited to what two or three instructors could control on the video screens, usually no more than 20 ships at a time. Programs created by the UNR students and teachers will allow a computer to control hundreds of vessels for a single simulation.

“The problem they have is realism,” said Sushil Louis, director of the Evolutionary Computing Systems Laboratory at UNR. “We’re giving them the ability to make it more realistic.”

So far, the Navy has spent about $2 million on the computer war games project, which UNR professors and Navy officials estimate is about two years from completion.

“We’ve already integrated it with our (training) simulator,” Aleson said of the high-tech classroom in Newport. “It’s working.”

The classroom is a mock-up of a ship’s bridge, where the captain gives orders to the crew. Software simulations, in which ships appear as computer-generated objects in video games, are shown on large screens that officers view from the bridge, as they would at sea.

Leigh has been on the bridge. To him, it seemed real.

“After a while, I actually started feeling seasick,” Leigh said.

From the bridge, naval officers play serious war games.

“We look at terrorist threats,” Aleson said. “We look at large-scale coordinated attacks.”

They also look at crowded San Diego Bay, where one of those Saturday skippers might suddenly veer into the path of a destroyer.

“We are teaching (officers) a decision-making process,” Aleson said.

Every Navy officer assigned to a ship attends the school, which has 1,000 students a year in classes lasting up to six months. Many already have been at sea. That’s why the simulations created at UNR must be realistic.

“A lot of our students have years of experience, they know how to drive ships,” Aleson said of the officers. “If you want to create real-life behaviors, there is a lot more processing a computer has to do.”

The computer-driven ships must perform as if they had human captains.

“Move and navigate just like there’s a real person behind the wheel,” said Monica Nicolescu, a professor of computer science who specializes in robotics. “Make it realistic.”

(pr.com)

Santa Clara, CA, May 23, 2006 –(PR.COM)– Real-Time Innovations, Inc. (RTI), The Real-Time Middleware Company, announced today that Force Technology chose RTI communications middleware for its latest marine tug simulator system.

Force Technology is a market leader in the design of multi-ship simulator systems. Its latest marine simulator represents a major step forward. This simulator is the world’s first system to provide a complete environment for training tugboat captains in maneuvering large vessels such as oil and gas tankers into restricted spaces using multiple tugs. This demanding, full-mission trainer application simulates in real time the dynamic configuration of up to four vessels and the resulting variables on the tow lines when handling vessels in a seaway.

Force Technology wanted to interconnect the various dynamic elements in the simulator using real-time middleware that complied with the Object Management Group (OMG’s) Data Distribution Service (DDS) for Real-Time Systems standard. This would provide a COTS-based integration environment for Force Technology’s distributed system design. The design team evaluated a number of DDS implementations before selecting RTI Data Distribution Service (formerly NDDS), which was best able to meet the critical real-time performance requirements needed by this demanding application.

“One of the key enabling technologies now emerging in the design of such distributed simulator systems is real-time middleware,” commented Peter Justesen, head of Simulation and Information Technologies at Force Technology. “Our decision to select RTI’s solution was based primarily on the performance advantage demonstrated by our technical evaluation of available DDS products.”

“The publish-subscribe paradigm of DDS enables systems to share data without having to create unique interfaces for each system. It therefore frees our developers from needing to know the internal operation of each subsystem in order to retrieve its data. All the application needs to do is to subscribe to the desired data sets and DDS does the rest,” Justesen continued. “And using standards-based interfaces such as DDS provides our designers with a COTS-based development environment that greatly simplifies system maintenance and the introduction of upgraded hardware in our operational systems without requiring a rewrite of the application software.”

“Simulators are an ideal application for the DDS standard,” stated David Barnett, vice president of Product Management at RTI. “DDS was designed specifically to ease the development of heterogeneous distributed systems such as simulators. These systems have demanding real-time data distribution requirements and incorporate a mix of computing platforms. I am delighted that Force Technology concluded that RTI was best able to meet the stringent performance requirements of its leading-edge application.”

The Full Mission Simulator for Tug Master Training — This new interactive tug simulator facility has been developed in close cooperation with SvitzerWijsmuller, one of the world’s leading tug operators. The cooperation agreement between the parties will secure the continued development of the facility and the courses. Force Technology was chosen as the preferred partner for this development due to its combination of experience in advanced ship hydrodynamics, mathematical modeling and simulation, all of which is available at the same geographical location in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The simulator offers the following features:

• Full six degrees of freedom tug and assisted ship behavior
• Tug bridge viewing of 360 degrees
• Real bridge equipment similar to a modern state-of-the-art tug
• World-class hydrodynamic mathematical models of tug and assisted ship based on extensive model tests and sea trials
• Fully coupled and interactive simulations of tug and assisted ship, including effects such as fender, towline, propeller wash interaction, radio communication and so on
• All the customary simulator effects such as wind, waves, current, varying visibility, bathymetry, and miscellaneous sound and visual effects
• Full flexibility to efficiently implement new tug designs, additional or new assisted ships designs, and additional or new operating areas (This flexibility is achieved because the simulator is completely based on Force Technology’s own simulator development, SimFlex Navigator.)

About Force Technology — Force Technology is a leading design consultancy and service provider offering a wide range of services and solutions for the international market. They transform highly specialized engineering knowledge into practical and cost-effective solutions, and provide consultancy within several areas. Force Technology is a privately owned center of expertise approved by the Danish Ministry for Research and Development as a technological service institute. Their experience with simulation technology goes back many years, and includes lay-out and design simulation, determination of safe operational limits in wind, current and waves, maneuvering and stability simulations, etc. Facilities include full-mission simulators, including bridges and tug cubicles, towing tank, and wind tunnels. Force Technology sells their simulator products to customers around the world. The company’s headquarters are located in Brøndby outside Copenhagen. They also operate subsidiaries in Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, USA, Brazil and Russia. In 2004 the group’s Danish and international operations employed a staff of more than 1000 employees.

About RTI — Real-Time Innovations (RTI) supplies middleware and distributed data management solutions for real-time systems. With innovative technology and deep expertise in distributed applications, RTI provides an unequaled competitive advantage to customers developing systems that benefit from high-performance access to time-critical data. RTI solutions have been deployed in a broad range of applications including command and control, intelligence, surveillance, data fusion, simulation, industrial control, air traffic control, railway management, roadway traffic monitoring and multimedia communications. Founded in 1991, RTI is privately held and headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.