Transas has launched its Academy of integrated simulation technology, online content, software and training experts at a simulator user conference in Singapore. It is part of a reorganisation of the company that new chief executive Frank Coles has instigated since joining in the fourth quarter of 2015. He said the Academy brings together training centres, shipowners and training technology in one integrated community. “It is a connected environment where the simulator becomes like a brain,” he said. “We are providing training capabilities and functionality, as our simulator team has been working on online content.”
The Academy is part of the new Transas Harmonised Eco System of Integrated Solutions (Thesis). Mr Coles said this is a flexible data platform that enables stakeholders in the shipping industry, including shipowners, vessel traffic management and training academies, to share information and use Transas solutions. “Thesis is a flexible data resource and a scalable platform, where our solutions will all work together and data can be shared between users.” He expects that Thesis will enable shipping companies to adopt fleet resource management, where shore-based centres provide more decision support to crews and training schools can offer real-time training and expertise.
“By connecting and integrating the solutions, we will enable ship operators to embrace fleet resource management,” said Mr Coles. “We will also enable training schools and vessel traffic control to play a greater role. The ecosystem can facilitate training in different ways, and allow real world data to continuously fine tune our models.” He expects the ecosystem to evolve as new requirements are included and refined, as maritime stakeholders provide feedback on what is needed.
Transas Academy vice president Ralf Lehnert said changes in shipping technology, seafarer competence requirements and updates to the Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) had led the company to integrate its training solutions. “We are changing to higher automation and ships with greater connectivity to the shore,” he explained. “There is more information exchange and decision support from shore. Simulators can help with this in real-time, or in preparation for challenging voyages, ice navigation and oil spill response.”
He continued: “The industry needs to build competence, knowledge and skills, and change attitudes, which is why we created our Academy. This goes beyond mere simulation, to connect stakeholders and address future competence requirements. It facilitates our own business and partner content, as well as bridging the gap between STCW compliance and shipowner competence requirements.”
Transas Academy includes ecdis training through the Get-Net training network initiative and dynamic positioning (DP) accredited training, as well as leadership and management training. “We have the technical platform for specific requirements, the cloud infrastructure, the learning management systems, the simulators and the connectivity,” said Mr Lehnert. It also addresses additions to STCW which will soon include ice navigation and handling liquefied natural gas (LNG) fuels on ships.
IMO has included aspects from the International Code of Safety for Ships using Gases or other Low-flashpoint Fuels (IGF Code), including LNG fuel handling and bunkering, in STCW. According to ClassNK manager of certification service planning Naoki Saito, rules for specific equipment training and operations on LNG-fuelled ships will come into force in January 2017. They will also include training in bunkering operations and some aspects of LNG terminal operations, he said.
STCW covers the methods of training seafarers and the ways in which they should demonstrate their competence, as well as approval of simulator facilities and training programs. “Plus, seafarers must have at least one month of approved sea going service to include a minimum of three bunkering operations,” said Mr Saito. “Two of these could be replicated by simulator training in bunkering operations.”
The addition of the IGF Code requirements to STCW, along with the increasing number of LNG-fuelled ships, will lead to rising demand for these simulator training courses. Mr Saito expects there will be 62 LNG-fuelled ships in operation in 2018. He said the number of emission control areas (ECAs) will increase from the existing ones today, which include the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the North American coastline. He said that Japan and Australia were considering introducing ECAs in the near future.
There are also going to be restrictions on sulphur in fuel in approaches to a number of Chinese ports. “So there is further need for training in LNG-fuelled ship operations, LNG bunkering and LNG terminal personnel,” he said. ClassNK and Transas signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in June 2014 covering co-operation in marine simulation training and in developing courses.
Mr Saito also said that training aspects of the International Code for Ships Operating in Polar Waters (Polar Code) will be added to STCW from 2018. This will include teaching voyage planning and safety navigation in the Arctic and around Antarctica. “It includes ice training for masters, chief officers and chief engineers for navigation and watchkeeping in ice-prone waters, and demonstrating competence, so simulators will be important,” he said.
To meet the Polar Code training requirements, Transas is working with USA-based Hempstead Maritime Training to improve ice navigation simulator programs. Owner Christian Hempstead said more advanced programs should simulate more accurately how vessels interact with ice and the navigation of different vessel types in various ice conditions.
He explained how 3D ice objects are developed in simulator programs. The first action is to create an ice zone in the program, then represent the ice generation including drawing the shape of ice sheets, the thickness below the water, and ice colour. The next step is adding the behaviour of the ice, such as drift, movement during collisions and how it breaks up. Then programmers can draw in navigation channels through the ice.
Hempstead Maritime Training used a model of an Edison Chouest ice breaker to simulate the interaction of a vessel and the ice, but algorithms have been developed that enable ice to be added to many Transas ship models. “Our next development is to include ice interaction with land masses, such as islands, and to simulate shallow open water near ice floes, as this is challenging to navigators,” Mr Hempstead said. Another development is simulating the way ships will follow a lead vessel in channels between ice floes.
Transas is also incorporating more safety and security programs in its Academy. It signed an MoU in January to integrate XVR Simulation’s software with its simulator technology. Based in The Netherlands, XVR has developed software and modelling for fire-fighting, and emergency and crisis response training using a powerful gaming engine. XVR has also introduced damage control training on board ships inside a virtual environment. It provides four core simulator modules based on the same technological platform – 3D on scene, resource management, control room, and crisis media simulator.
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