Navigating technology in the marine industry

Imagine learning to guide a ship through any harbour, with all the reality of real world operations and none of the consequences of running aground or causing harm. Viva Energy Marine Manager Matt Hodkinson discusses how simulator technology is being extended and integrated with other cutting-edge technologies to ensure Viva Energy ships fuel as safely and efficiently as possible.

Australia’s maritime industry is taking a test-and-learn approach on dry land thanks to state-of-the-art technology in Brisbane.

 
Smartship Australia’s ship simulator teaches ship pilots and masters to safely and efficiently navigate their ships through harbours using virtual experiences of being in a tugboat or on the bridge of a ship, in a vast array of shipping scenarios.
 
The technology uses a combination of high-resolution projectors and LCD displays to deliver a realistic representation of ports, ship models and weather events, enabling training and testing on:
 
•       Manoeuvrability.
•       Equipment malfunction.
•       Environmental factors such as wind, current, tide, rain, fog and day/night conditions.

The simulator is like something out of the aviation industry. It's about three metres in diameter and six metres high, with 360 degrees of LCD screens.
 
"You can actually open the screens and walk in, sit down, and it's like you’re driving a tugboat – if it rolls, you feel the rolling motion," says Matt.

Virtual becomes reality for the marine industry

Designed to help ship pilots and masters understand and navigate Australia’s most challenging waterways, the Smartship simulator is operated by Queensland’s Department of Transport and Main Roads and is one of just two in the world.
 
Smartship was originally developed to simulate and test the human element in very ‘real’ scenarios.

"You’re virtually standing on the bridge of the ship, dealing with a wide variety of situations,” Matt explains. “You experience the ship moving down the channel and the interplay between the tugboat, pilot, master, chief officer and vessel.
 
"You’re able to test what happens if the engine fails, the rudder gets jammed or the weather turns extreme; you can take it right up to the edge and then work out your safety margins," he adds.
 
How is Viva Energy using the technology?
 
The Smartship simulator has enabled Viva Energy to test operational limits and optimise port pilotage and procedures, such as reducing the number of tugboats needed to guide ships through Sydney Harbour.
 
"We're bringing ships into the harbour to our oil terminal that are 250 metres long and 42 metres wide, weighing 120,000 tonnes. It’s a highly sensitive area, historically navigated using four tugboats,” says Matt.

"We spent two days in the simulator with the harbourmaster, pilots and the tug company, running a series of scenarios such as engine failures, tug fails, wind gusts. As a result, we were able to enter real world testing with a high degree of confidence and have now been safely operating with three tugs for the past 18 months."
 
The technology is also being used to test bringing bigger ships through Geelong’s harbour, which will result in greater efficiency in terms of freight economics. The ship simulations leverage a number of integrated technologies, namely hydraulic seafloor models, probabilistic weather analysis and dynamic under keel clearance.

"Geelong channel is long, narrow and winding, and we want to know what would happen if the vessel is longer and wider. In the old days, they'd build a scale model of both channel and ship to run tests; we do it using a CAD file of the topography of the sea floor, together with a hydraulic model plugged into the Smartship simulator.
 
"It’s all about safely reducing import costs,” he adds. “Being an island nation, everything we do has a shipping element. Extending and integrating technologies to increase our knowledge and understanding will ultimately result in safer and more efficient transport of hydrocarbons by sea."