A £7m new marine simulator centre has been officially opened at Solent University in Southampton. Presenting the new simulator, UK Chamber of Shipping president Sir Michael Bibby said it should play a vital role in delivering UK’s Maritime 2050 policy objectives. The centre is able to simulate more than 400 different ships and currently features about 140 ports worldwide.
Maritime Crew Resource Management training is of outmost importance for the shipping industry; it focuses on Bridge Resource Management and Engine Room Resource Management including performance monitoring, drills and exercises with simulators or videos and feedback procedures.
Kongsberg Digital has signed a contract to deliver two new K-Sim Full Mission Bridge simulators at the Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Watson Bridge Simulator Facility in Watsons Bay, Sydney, Australia. The project is added to Kongsberg’s service delivery contracts with the RAN, which includes multiple shiphandling and engine room simulators delivered at training facilities across the country.
Building better training simulators for sailors on surface ships is a key initiative that the US Navy is carrying out. This comes as the Navy implements recommendations following the deadly USS John S. McCain and USS Fitzgerald collisions, according to Adm. William Moran, vice chief of naval operations. Mr. Moran also stated his disappointment about the simulators that were used by the surface force, in comparison to what he was used to as a naval aviator.
The Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has launched a high-tech marine and harbour simulation centre established by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) at the NPA Dockyard, Apapa, Lagos. The Minister commented that the centre would have saved the Federal Government foreign exchange that would have been used in training personnel abroad.
As digitalization is becoming an integral part of the shipping industry, more and more operators can benefit from its use. An interesting new technology that aspires to move maritime forward, is the digital twin concept. Digital twins provide a virtual model of a physical ship, producing valuable insights from data. So, what exactly is a digital twin ship?
The US National Transportation Safety Board’s Office of Marine Safety installed a navigation simulator system. The simulator enables the user to participate in a number of ‘what if’ scenarios, that aims to improve training, forensic analysis and reflective learning.
Marine support services company V.Group will unveil a new app for seafarers and an upgraded training centre in Manila as progress is ongoing on Project Embark. The app will be providing seafarer data to improve crewing performance and assist in planning.
Captain Hans Hederström, Managing Director at Center for Simulator Maritime Training, CSMART, and Karan Bhawsinka, Port Study Manager, CSMART outline how CSMART attempts to develop pilotage plans on a bridge simulator together with bridge teams and local port pilots.
Wärtsilä will provide a full scope of marine simulators for a new training facility at Solent University’s Warsash School of Maritime Science and Engineering, located in Southampton, England. This will be the largest marine simulation training centre in the U.K. The training facility is expected to complete in spring 2019.
