A €6.5M EU-funded project will develop and test augmented reality bridge systems to improve navigation safety and efficiency in Arctic ship operations
A €6.5M EU-funded project will develop and test augmented reality bridge systems to improve navigation safety and efficiency in Arctic ship operations
Augmented reality (AR) will be coming to ship bridges in the next three years to enhance navigational safety. Some of the main integrated bridge system suppliers have considered using this technology for providing greater amounts of data than has previously been possible and in more imaginative ways to bridge teams.
So far, AR, which involves projection of information on a visual display to augment what the user can already see, has only been proposed or incorporated in bridge design concepts. However, a €6.5M (US$7.6M) study was started in June this year that promises to progress AR proposals to the testing phase.
Developing advanced bridge systems is only one aspect of the three-year project. The Sedna study will address safety and efficiency in Arctic ship operations, including ship design and maritime operations, as well as navigation. Sedna is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme and led by BMT Group of the UK. It was started in response to the increasing requirements for ships to use Arctic regions, including the sea route across northern Russia.
Project partners want to address the challenges of Arctic navigation, including voyages through ice. They believe there is a lack of Arctic-specific training for bridge crews that can be tackled by redesigning the bridge. The Sedna team said in August that it would “develop a Safe Arctic Bridge that will be a human-centred operational environment for ice-going vessels”.
Bridge design and layout will focus on the navigational requirements of Arctic conditions and the challenges that come from a lack of chart data. The Sedna partners expect the Safe Arctic Bridge to use AR to improve situational awareness and to support the crew in their decision making. It said this will be developed and tested in a virtual bridge prototyping system.
Sedna will also integrate dynamic meteorological and oceanographic data with real-time ice movement predictions and ship performance data. This will be used in new regional weather and sea ice probability forecasts and ship-based ice monitoring systems that provide intelligent decision support to navigators. Sedna expects these developments will enable navigators to optimise Arctic voyages for fuel efficiency and improve safety.
Bridge manufacturers have worked on AR for their systems. For example, Rolls-Royce worked with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland to develop a futuristic ship’s bridge concept, known as oX, that incorporates AR displays on the windows. These could display information about the vessel’s surroundings, including visualisation of potential hazards, such as ice or other vessels that would otherwise be invisible to the human eye. Rolls-Royce hopes to have oX bridges on commercial ships by 2025.
Wärtsilä is taking a different approach towards AR. Its navigation products manager Eberhard Maass told Marine Electronics & Communications that there are other ways to display information on the bridge. “We are talking about different operating ideas … such as specialist glasses, or intelligent windows,” he said.
Augmented reality will be deployed in bridge systems of the future, but the medium and where to display the information are not finally decided.
Sedna partners
The Sedna project is led by BMT Group (UK) and brings together 13 partners from six countries, including China. The partners are:
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