Page 48: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (November 2012)

48Maritime Reporter & Engineering News TrainingAnew Offshore Simulator Cen- ter (OSC) is being finalized in Aalesund, Norway to pro- vide advanced training in off- shore ship operations. The new facilities are located in a 'Norwegian Competence Center building' next to the Aalesund University College. The building contains several futuristic constructions, such as a 13.5m diameteraluminium dome for the offshore opera- tions simulators, and two 4m diameter spherical domes for crane simulation.When finalized, the new centre will con- sist of one Offshore Operation Simulator, with a full 360 degree Offshore Vessel bridge, four Deck Personnel stations, aCrane Simulator, a Winch Simulator, an Engine Room Simulator, a ROV Simula- tor and a 360 degree 'Visualization The- atre', intended for various simulation and visualization projects, located on thelower floor of the large dome. In addi- tion, the center will have several 'brief- /debrief rooms' with advanced audiovisual equipment that enable live transmission of sound and video from thesimulators. In all, the simulators will use70 professional grade projectors andclose to 100 PCs/servers. The simulators can be operated separately or in an inte-grated mode, enabling advanced team training across several roles, positions or vessels. The training courses will be provided by AAUC Maritime Operations. "This new center will enable Aalesund Univer- sity College to increase the scope of sim- ulator training, taking the trainingconcepts to a new level. It also demon- strates some of what OSC is capable ofdelivering, both regarding facility design and simulator technology," Arne Mon- sholm, CEO at OSC told Maritime Re-porter. The simulators will provide train- ing starting mid-August this year. Mr Monsholm described the back-ground and business model of OSC. "Our business idea is that we want to con- tribute to improving the safety of the per- sonnel through simulation andvisualisation of demanding offshore op- erations." He describes how there is a lot of competence in offshore operations in this part of Norway, around Aalesund. OSC was founded in 2004 by Farstad Shipping, Rolls-Royce, the University College of Aalesund, and Marintek in Trondheim, each with a 25% sharehold- ing. The first simulator was established in 2005, after which more simulatorshave been added. Now the entire facility is moving into new facilities. The initializing factor of OSC was a fatal offshore accident, which took place due to a lack of knowledge and right training, in Brazil. Anchor handling was really the initial activity when the simu- lator center was funded. Anchor handling involves several roles and a several dif- ferent actions that can go wrong. There has been fatal accidents both onboard vessels and entire vessels that have cap- sized. We are focusing on the operation of the offshore activities. The deck per- sonnel has an equally important role asthe people on the bridge in manoeuvringthe ship. Another area OSC focuses on is supply vessel operations. "They are not as dangerous as anchor handling, becausethere are not as many things that can go wrong, but still, it can be a challenging operation from a coordination and a col-laboration point of view." This simulation includes the lifting operation, loading andoffloading of cargo, the coordination of hoses and stuff between the rig and the supply vessel. There are a lot of tasks that OSCOffshore Simulator Center opens in Aalesund, NorwayBy Henrik Segercrantz MR#11 (42-49):MR Template 11/3/2012 10:33 AM Page 48