Ship Maneuvering Using a Ship Simulator in Search and Rescue Operation

Abstract

In order to successfully steer a ship, a man, ship’s watch officer, or commander of the ship must be physically ready and must know the maneuvering characteristics of the ship he steers, as well as the forces acting on him. For that, it is necessary for him to know the specifics of the ship because each ship has its own "mood", its specific properties that depend on the type, and size of the ship. Therefore, maneuvering properties differ even in ships of the same type and therefore it is important to know the specifics of a particular ship. Also, the same ship will behave differently in different situations. When the ship finds itself in situations that require urgent reaction during the voyage, then the experience and skills of the ship's captain come to the fore. Then it is important that the captain, based on his experience, chooses the right maneuver, but also that he always has at least one reserve maneuver in his head. That decision in certain situations must be made in a very short period of time, and the future of the ship and human lives often depends on it, as well as the resources on board. Every skill is acquired through practice, and it is logical that the commander will react faster and more correctly in every new situation. Precisely because of this, the most intensive training is necessary for the formation of quality ship commanders. For that reason, the training of future ship commanders on ship simulators gives excellent results. On ship simulators, they can gain a lot of experience and go through countless scenarios. In this paper, the use-value of ship simulators from the aspect of the training was verified through the Search and Rescue (SAR) exercise realized on the ship simulator Wärtsilä Navigation Simulator NTPRO 5000. It has been shown that the simulator can successfully check and recognize the optimal SAR pattern, maneuvering characteristics of the ship, as well as practice, maneuvering the ship and resolving specific situations that ship commanders may encounter in real situations. Training on ship simulators cannot completely replace training in real situations, but it can be used to get acquainted with the maneuvering characteristics of the ship, train in working with navigation devices, and be a good starting point in preparing people who are trained to perform tasks in real situations. The use of hydrological data of relationships between different types of data using an autoregressive model (AR model) can contribute to the creation of more realistic scenarios on ship simulators. It is also possible to apply data in the modeling of the environment and connect them with the current hydrological situation of the waterway. In the exercise evaluation process, we can see if the ship's captain used the hydrological data in the right way.