SimSea integrates bridge, crane and DP operations

In view of new regulations and guidance covering the training of offshore support vessel (OSV) officers, Norwegian shipowners turned to Kongsberg Maritime to supply a suite of simulators. Requirements for bridge and engineroom resource management, introduced under the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) 2010 update, mean that shipowners are expected to develop their officers’ teamwork skills by working them through problem-solving scenarios on simulators.

For OSV owners operating in Europe, the regulations cover safe anchor handling operations, and this has encouraged the training of officers for drilling rig proximity operations and towing. The North West European Area guidance is being updated in the third quarter of this year to introduce more safety aspects, requiring further simulator training.

With this in mind, a consortium of shipowners in the Haugesund area of Norway invested in a new training facility, in association with the local university, to enhance their simulator teaching. The SimSea facility was created to expand simulator training at Haugesund University. Shipowner DOF Management and the Rogaland authorities are leading stakeholders in the facility. So is the ResQ consortium of shipowners Solstad Offshore, Eidesvik, Østensjo Rederi and shuttle tanker owner Knutsen OAS Shipping.

The centrepiece of SimSea is the full mission double-bridge offshore vessel simulator that includes a complete forward ship bridge and an aft bridge as seen on modern high-tech anchor handlers and subsea support vessels. This enables anchor handling, aft and forward bridge navigation, and offshore loading (tandem and loading buoy) training. Also at SimSea there is an offshore crane simulator that can be modelled on a knuckle boom crane on an offshore vessel or a wire-luffing lattice pedestal crane installed on drilling rigs and offshore platforms.

There is a dynamic positioning (DP) simulator incorporating Kongsberg’s latest K-POS technology and a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) operator simulator. There are seven Kongsberg Polaris navigation and ship manoeuvring simulators for all maritime shipping requirements, and an offshore loading simulator for shuttle tanker operations. The ROV simulator is supplied by Fugro Subsea and the programs are developed with advice from DeepOcean.

The offshore vessel forward bridge simulator has Kongsberg radar, ecdis, conning and shiphandling consoles. The aft bridge has a K-POS DP-21, K-Master shiphandling console and a winch control facility. This can link to one of the Polaris simulators in another room for multi-vessel scenarios. The offshore vessel simulator can also be linked to the crane and ROV simulators.

Torodd Lokna, chairman of SimSea says “It is the integration of these simulators that makes this centre unique. We can train people for complete operations. For example we can have the ship moving, the crane moving and the ROV all together. We can play out all types of scenarios and monitor the interplay between different people.

“The first course was with Solstad and now we are training DOF people. All of the ResQ shipowners will use this facility as there are no courses elsewhere for training the whole team. In the North Sea, if there is a problem it is often because of team failure and they all have to stop operations, perhaps for a couple of days and the vessel would have to go on standby. So we are trying to get rid of these stops in operations and are thinking about team communication and interaction.

“There’s a need for assessment of people’s competence. There has been a lot of recruitment in Norway and owners can use SimSea for checking their officer’s competence before they go on to operate a large anchor handler. Crane operators only do perhaps two hours per day so they do not get the possibilities to train in extreme operations. Offshore vessel owners have special needs and will have their own model for specific ship operations to train their crews.”

The complexity of offshore operations and the quality demanded of the training centre means SimSea has to find an alternative way of recruiting trainers for the simulators, explains director Rune Johansen. “It is all about the human element and getting the right competencies of people using the simulators. We have developed a model where we train simulator operators to run the complex PC systems that simulators consist of. We get operating knowledge from the companies that own us to develop the courses and run them.

“But we do not expect people with operating experience to run the simulators. We have agreements with the shipowners to get experienced officers to spend one month at SimSea. Also officers on leave are keen to work for us. We do not have a traditional deployment model. These officers sit with the simulator operators and can monitor trainees on screens. They can pretend to be deck personnel or people on the rig during a scenario.”

Kongsberg delivered the simulators between October and December 2011 and the first course began in January 2012 with captains from Solstad, says Søren Einar Veierland, Kongsberg’s business manager for maritime training and simulation.

“The shipowners are committed investors and have a big interest in using the centre. The first course involved three captains from Solstad and then there were three captains from DOF. They were all impressed with the simulators. We modelled the offshore vessel simulator program on Solstad’s Normand Ranger anchor handler and two of the captains on the first course were from that vessel and they said how close it was to the real thing.”

He adds: “Kongsberg’s involvement in SimSea is strategic. We have supplied around 800 simulators around the world for the merchant marine, navy and offshore sectors but we are working particularly close with SimSea. Here we wanted to be close to the operations side and interface with people from everyday operations. There will be hundreds of people coming through SimSea and instructors that operate around the industry. They will bring fresh competence and by interfacing with them we can drive our technology forward.

“We are working to make smarter technology for the future and at SimSea we can do prototype testing on real people and it can also act as a showroom for our products. We expect to see a significant number of people from around the world coming to see this state-of-the-art facility that brings together bridge, crane, ROV and DP operations. Now we can train people for the whole offshore operations to practice their communication, procedures and interaction. This is the first centre in the world that can bring all this together.”

“STCW is introducing new requirements for bridge resource management and this is driving demand for more team-training on simulators,” Mr Veierland continues. “For offshore vessels and rigs it is about crisis management, for example what to do in a blackout on an OSV. Owners can set up the bridge controls and then throw problems at their officers to see how they manage a crisis.

“Offshore procedures are governed in Norway, the UK, the Netherlands and Denmark by the North West European Area guidelines. All personnel involved in anchor handler operations need to show proof that they have fresh experience of working on anchor handler rig moves either from actual operations or simulators. The guidelines are being revised and will be released in the third quarter.”

The centre will be used for general maritime bridge operations on all kinds of ships using the Polaris simulators. For example, shuttle tanker owners Knutsen OAS Shipping and Knutsen NYK Offshore Tankers will use SimSea to train its DP operators, especially during offshore loading operations, when shuttle tankers are controlled by DP and thrusters.

Knutsen OAS Shipping’s managing director Trygve Seglem explains: “All our vessels have Kongsberg bridge, DP and automation systems so now we will be sending all our officers to SimSea instead of other training facilities.”
Toshi Nakamura, an executive vice president of the affiliate Knutsen NYK Offshore

Tankers says the company will be sending its officers to SimSea to improve their teamwork and competence, adding, “This is a unique facility for training offshore loading. It is important to test the competence of our officers and DP operators. We use Kongsberg DP, bridge and automation systems on our tankers and will be sending all our officers for refresher training. We will also send our new recruits for our new shuttle tankers.”

Transas supplies 360-degree simulators

Transas has supplied multiple simulators to new training academies in Indonesia and the US. It supplied a 360-degree Navi-Trainer Professional (NTPro) 5000 main bridge simulator, including rear view screens and a DP trainer to Merchant Marine Polytechnic (PIP) Semarang in Indonesia. The Integrated Navigation System building has a simulator suite including the full mission bridge and six trainee DP stations plus radar and ecdis consoles.

There are also a full mission engineroom simulator and liquid cargo handling simulator and four cubicle part-task bridges. Bambang Purnomo, director of PIP Semarang says: “The integrated training solution provided by Transas is a high quality product that exceeds our requirements to train highly skilled seafarers, who are ready to be challenged with any task in the maritime world.”

In the US, Transas supplied a full mission ship simulator to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA). The facilities include a full mission, 360-degree bridge simulator, debriefing room and an instructor’s control room. The integrated navigation system has radar and ecdis multifunction displays and a DP2 training system. The full mission simulator complements the NTPro 5000 simulators MMA already had on site. It can operate either independently, or in joint exercises for multi-vessel scenarios.MEC