Marine Safety International (MSI) reports that the “Gold Crew” of the U.S. Navy’s Navy’s High Speed Vessel SWIFT (HSV-2) completed five days of training at MSI Norfolk on August 5, 2005.
A significant part of the training was 28 hours of simulator exercises using MSI Norfolk’s new High Speed Vessel console. The console features separate ARPA displays for the Navigator and Officer of the Deck positions along with a shared ECDIS (Electronic Chart).
The crew training included a 24 hour Bridge Resource Management course and 16 hours of advanced shiphandling. During the advanced shiphandling phase the crew training focused on high speed choke point transits with high traffic density.
SWIFT has two crews – Gold and Blue – which alternate in manning the vessel. The Gold crew is homeported at the Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek in Norfolk, VA. The Blue crew is homeported in at the Naval Station, Ingleside, TX.
During its last deployment, SWIFT conducted a high speed transit from Ingleside to Singapore to provide disaster relief in response to the December 2004 South Asian tsunami. The 31-knot open-ocean transit included a one-day crew swap in Pearl Harbor. Relief support operations included high speed cargo transport and over 30 days of continuous helicopter operations in support of USNS MERCY (T-AH 19)
People made seasick in the name of science
Defence Department researchers have been trying to make people seasick””but not too seasick””so they can assess their performance under trying conditions.
Faced with shrinking rosters aboard its naval fleet and at the same time demanding more technical expertise from sailors, the military can ill afford to let rough seas compromise operations.
If commanders could identify which crew members are most susceptible to seasickness and under what conditions, they could respond by shortening shifts or replacing vulnerable sailors before they get sick.
Researchers also hope to ultimately identify what tasks can still be done even by those who are seasick, so Defence can decide where to spend its money on replacements.
The problem is, there’s no criteria for measuring seasickness, the precise conditions that cause it, or, particularly, its effect on human performance.
That’s where Jim Colwell and Scott MacKinnon come in.
Colwell, a naval architect with Defence Research and Development Canada, drafted the protocol for a study aimed at controlling illness so researchers can measure how people perform when they’re seasick.
He even came up with a Misery Scale ranging from 0 (no problems), through nine levels of discomfort, nausea, and retching, to 10 (full-scale vomiting).
MacKinnon, an ergonomist, conducted the study in a ship motion simulator at Newfoundland’s Memorial University. His first challenge was finding enough volunteers””20, in the end””willing to get sick for science.
“It’s pretty hard to get people who chronically get motion sickness to actually volunteer to do these types of trials,” said MacKinnon, whose seasick-prone wife, Helen, was among those who signed on.
“We got 20 people who at least demonstrated some levels of motion sickness. Some did end up vomiting. Some dropped out,” he noted. “Typically, it’s very hard to reel them back in once they pass a certain point.”
By altering the simulator’s motions (pitch, roll, yaw, heave, surge, and sway), MacKinnon managed to keep about half the seasick participants in the four-six range, which included sweating, dizziness, and an uneasy stomach, up to slight nausea.
All but two of the others got just seasick enough that the machine’s motions didn’t need to be altered. The two others threw up no matter what the testers did.
The results””that seasickness can be regulated for research purposes””will be published later this summer. The findings also could help industries such as fisheries and commercial shipping.
It’s not the first time motion sickness studies have been conducted, but Colwell said previous projects typically recorded how many people got sick, how fast they got sick, and how sick they got under set conditions.
“The typical kind of experiment is you set the motions at a certain level of severity and then you watch what happens to the people,” he said.
“Generally, people who begin to get motion sick progress through mild, moderate, and fairly severe symptoms over a fairly short period of time.
“So it’s really difficult to look at performance with mild motion sickness when people don’t stabilize at that level but get worse pretty rapidly.”
Colwell and MacKinnon’s study was the first to regulate the motions of the simulator by the seasickness they caused. It required participants to perform rudimentary computer tasks such as math problems and other questions.
“I wondered why anyone who knows how bad it can be would volunteer to put themselves through it,” said study participant Helen MacKinnon.
“Near the end, you got the feeling you just didn’t care, you just wanted to answer the questions. You just weren’t feeling up to it.
“I can see how anybody working on a boat would find it hard to concentrate on their job.”
In fact, the issue came to the fore after a 1997 NATO exercise where about half of 1,025 sailors surveyed aboard seven ships reported varying degrees of seasickness resulting in problems doing their jobs.
Better training at sea becoming a reality
Human error causes most incidents and accidents in the marine sector. To improve the quality of training, and therefore safety, a flexible multimedia learning system has been developed that offers customised self-learning programmes.
Developed under the IST programme-funded SLIM-VRT project, the partners’ work brings together technology with maritime and pedagogical expertise.
“SLIM-VRT introduces personalised e-learning for the first time in the maritime sector,” says project manager Nikos Skarpetis. “It is better than existing computer-based training that takes place onboard because it allows users to select courses according to their needs, preferences and future plans.”
The SLIM-VRT project analysed trainee-employee profiles, such as skills, qualifications, training needs/styles and formal/informal career development in the shipping industry. It also studied emerging job requirements in today’s changing maritime environment. Using this information, project partners produced an innovative self-learning for work methodology based on individual user personalities and needs.
The project also developed the ‘Virtual Training Based on Real Experience’ paradigm, an innovative virtual reality tool (VRT) that acts as a powerful simulator enables students to examine real conditions at sea without moving to an expensive simulation site.
“Existing simulators cannot realistically simulate, in a user-centred way, emergency situations such as fires, accidents, sinking and near miss situations,” he explains.
The platform is based on a new framework for developing Intranet/Internet applications, consisting of a core system (execution environment) and a set of components each responsible for operating a different functionality. The system uses XML technology to present the requested data on a Web page. Another innovation is the support to authors provided through a tool that allows them to produce cost-effective educational material tailored to the users’ context.
The SLIM-VRT system was piloted using 55 users, including seafarers, shipping company employees, marine academy students and newcomers to the industry. Evaluation data were gathered using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. Skarpetis says the results were “extremely positive” . Project partners are exploring ways to exploit the system within the maritime sector.
The innovative virtual reality educational tool (VRET) can be easily adapted to other learning environments because the platform is fully customisable, while both the self-learning methodology and sub-system can support education and training needs of different user groups.
Town Cut will have to be widened
Two Rock Passage into Hamilton and St. George’s Town Cut will have to be widened and dredged in the near future to accommodate modern mega-cruise ships, a coastal engineer has concluded.
And environmental impact studies will have to be done to determine the impact it would have on not only coral reefs, but also currents. Philip Smith, co-director of Smith Warner International Ltd, the largest Caribbean firm specialising in Coastal Engineering, Coastal Zone Management and Oceanography, was commissioned by Government in 2003 to do a comprehensive survey of Bermuda’s coastline.
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The initiative was announced earlier this year by Government to overhaul all of Bermuda’s ports — St. George’s, Marginal Wharf, St. David’s, Hamilton Harbour and at Ireland Island North. For this purpose, a high-tech computerised maritime database, including simulation software, is being used to determine possible alterations, before actually making them.
Holland College to Expand Program Offerings at Marine Training Centre
Holland College is expanding its Marine Training and Commercial Diving program offerings with support from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA).
There are two projects that are part of this expansion; the first is the purchase of new equipment for both the Marine Training and Georgetown Centres. The Marine Training Centre will purchase an Advanced Tug Bridge Simulator, a Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Cargo Handling Simulator as well as other control and simulator systems. With the addition of new diving equipment at the Georgetown Centre, the College will be able to offer new programs in commercial scuba and diver medic training.
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The new tug simulator will feature a Kongsberg Polaris Full Mission Bridge with 280 degrees of visuals. Three additional bridges will be significantly enhanced, allowing for advanced, dynamic ship-to-ship interaction and comprehensive training scenarios involving multiple tugboats and other vessels.
The Titan Corp. Unidyne Group, Norfolk, Va., is being awarded a $5,631,686 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract
The Titan Corp. Unidyne Group, Norfolk, Va., is being awarded a $5,631,686 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to procure engineering and technical services for installation, testing and training of Total Ship Training Systems consisting of the following shipboard training systems: (1) AN/USQ-T46 Battle Force Tactical Training System; (2) AN/USQ-T47 Battle Force Electronic Warfare Trainer; (3) AN/USQ-T48 Trainer Simulator-Stimulator Systems; (4) Navigation Seamanship & Shiphandling Trainer; and (5) Damage Control Management Training System. Work will be performed in Norfolk, Va. (40 percent); San Diego, Calif (35 percent); Pascagoula, Miss. (10 percent); Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (5 percent); Japan (5 percent); Mayport, Fla, (3 percent); Bremerton, Wash. (1 percent); and Bath, Maine (1 percent), and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2005. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity.
SEAPA Installs New Hi-Tech Cruise Ship Simulator
Ketchikan, Alaska – The Southeast Alaska Pilots’ Association (SEAPA) has announced the delivery and installation of a new propulsion technology simulator at its headquarters in Ketchikan, Alaska. The new azipod simulator, the first of its kind in the U.S., was engineered by Electronic and Marine Research Industries (EMRI) in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Azimuthing podded drives, or azipods, is new marine propulsion technology where power and rotation are incorporated into one unit, thus ships with azipods are steered without a rudder. The pods incorporate built-in electric propeller motors attached to the vessel by a freely rotating steering gear. This enables 360 degrees of steering angle with controlled power output during maneuvering. The term “azipod” is an acronym incorporating azimuth (distance in angular degrees measured clockwise from a standard direction) and pod (a streamlined compartment).
Capt. Ted Kellogg, President of SEAPA said “In keeping with our mission of providing safe, secure pilotage in southeast waters, we’re training marine pilots on the newest, most up-do-date technology. We’re proud to be the first group in the US to have an EMRI simulator.”
The simulator will display two screens, one showing the vessel in a specific Transas© electronic chart display area and the other showing the vessel’s own data. The electronic chart display will be capable of displaying other vessel traffic via AIS (automatic identification system) and will present real time traffic situations for the operator. The simulator is interfaced with an instructor PC and LCD which forms the “control room “of the simulator. Vessel selection, wind, current, location, thrusters, generators, alarms and other initial data related to the exercise is input for the simulation exercise.
Kellogg said “For decades ships have been powered by the traditional propeller and rudder. Azipod propulsion is the future, and by installing this simulator, we’re going to be ready for it.” In Alaska, azipod propulsion technology is primarily utilized by the cruise industry by companies such as Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and Norwegian Cruise Line. Azipod technology has seen increased applications in the tanker, ice breaking, and cargo vessel new builds in recent years. Still a growing and developing technology, further use and development of azipods is anticipated.
Link: Southeast Alaska Pilots’ Association
Link: Electronics & Marine Research Industries
Link: Transas
Aims makes plans to buy driving simulator
Aims Community College is working on a plan to purchase a driving simulator that could be used to train everyone from police officers to 15-year-old rookie drivers.
The director of Aims’ Continuing Education division, Dick Woods, said he hopes to form partnerships with the community to pay for the $100,000 simulator. Aims invited potential contributors for a demonstration last week at its Corporate Education Center, 5590 11th St. in Greeley. Officials from the Weld County Commission, Greeley City Council, Union Colony Fire Department and the Colorado State Patrol crowded into the simulator’s 29-foot trailer for a peek.
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Aims Community College could have a driving simulator made by MPRI Ship Analytics, a division of L3 Communications, on campus by June. At a recent presentation, instructors demonstrated a version called the PatrolSim III. Here are a few features:
- Instructors can alter driving scenarios to train drivers on snow, ice, heavy rain, or to send cars or pedestrians into the driver’s path. Instructors can even set up scenarios in which drivers must choose between hitting a dog or a child on a bike.
- A Ship Analytics statistician will collect and analyze data from Weld County traffic accidents for free. The information can then be used to highlight problem areas and create simulator scenarios tailored to the county’s needs.
- Driving scenes resemble virtual reality video games with enough detail that drivers can read the headlines in newspapers in roadside racks.
- One feature delays the response of the simulator’s brakes and steering, giving drivers a feel for the delayed reaction caused by driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Check out other features at
www.shipanalytics.com/STS/default.asp.
Link: Ship Analytics
Link: Aims Community College
Sea travel safety bolstered
The whole-day seminar featured technical presentations, an open forum, and a visit to IDESS navigational simulator center which provided a demonstration of ENC in bridge simulator. IDESS is an independent organization which operates two navigational simulator centers, one in Brevik, Norway and the other in Subic Bay. It provides a diverse range of courses and programs to the maritime and offshore industries. The IDESS bridge simulator is the first facility in South East Asia with a 360-degree visualization.
Cal Maritime charts new waters The number of applicants to diverse program soars
This year, the academy will start building a new simulation center to house a variety of high-tech ship and boat simulators, engine-room recreations, an oil tanker-loading simulator and a machine that will allow students to hone their crisis-management skills.