Towards a design simulator for offshore ship bridges

The development of new design concepts for ship bridges on modern offshore vessels is a considerable challenge for engineering and design professions. Such ships perform advanced missions in extreme environmental conditions very different to the conditions where most design processes take place. Although fieldtrips might help diminish this gap, access to such trips are limited by both funding and access. We suggest the use of design simulators as design tools for conceptual design, mediating design collaboration between various design disciplines and users. This paper reports on work in progress were we analyse and explore possibilities and challenges regarding the use of a design simulator for the design of ship bridges, comparing the nature of conceptual design with the current use and capabilities of existing maritime simulators. Through this analysis we suggest that there is a potential for combining tools and techniques from conceptual design processes with the use of ship simulators in ship bridge design. We also suggest some challenges regarding effective use of the simulator as a design tool.