Simulators for design processes
The use and development of ship simulators for design processes have been pursued in the Ulstein Bridge Concept (UBC) design research project for a while and we are steadily making progress. As part of our work we are pleased to present our paper «Towards a design simulator for offshore ship bridges» at the European Conference on Modeling and Simulation in Ålesund in may (ESCM). The paper is written by PhD candidate Helge Tor Kristiansen and Associate Professor Kjetil Nordby.
The ESCM conference is focusing on the research, development and application of modeling and simulation. We contribute to this academic field with our experiences from using simulators in the UBC project, in which we continuously develop methods and technologies that allow a closer integration of simulator in conceptual design processes.
ESCM web page: http://ecms2013.hials.no/84-ecms2013/ecms-frontpage/71-ecms-welcome
I am not sure where I can post questions/remarks about the new bridge design, so I’ll just use this opportunity 🙂
I am very impressed about your thinking, making use of the present posibilities and I very much want you to succeed.
To succeed means that the bridge needs to work in the normal operating conditions: a (heavily) rolling and pitching ship where the operator has problems to stand and needs to find balance (including all the uncontrolled movements that this involves) Has attention been given to operating the equipment under these conditions? (the video show only North Sea during exceptional nice summer weather conditions 🙂 I know it is mentioned that the operator should be able to sit or stand as he likes, even during heavy seas, but in these conditions, whether sitting or standing, the operator makes a lot of relex movements, unplanned and uncontrolled, which should not trigger any response of the equipment, and is it hard to make deliberate, precisely controlled movements, if these are required to operate the equipment.
In modern shipping, more and more attention goes to operating in a team environment. I know that for offshore supply vessel this is less of an issue (mostly the “old-fashion” one-man operations), but this might change in future. Have team operations, in the form of Navigator – CoNavigator (even in the form of a pilot at port approach), been a consideration in the bridge design?
Dear Ed,
Thanks a lot for your feedback and interesting remarks! We are definitely concerned with the operation of equipment under different weather conditions. As you suggest, in modern offshore shipping, especially the more advanced vessels used for complex operations, teamwork is very much an issue. We also address this in our project. Please feel free to contact our project manager Kjetil Nordby directly if you have further questions.
Best regards,
Sigrun Lurås, project member, the Ulstein Bridge Concept