Overview
Major failures at sea are highly complex rescue operations. In the event of a damage, the coordination of the different rescue units plays a key role. The use of different ships of the sea rescue, various authorities as well as firefighting units and rescue helicopters must be coordinated by the sea emergency control and the emergency command. This complex structure has never been trained in a holistic practice.
Real exercises are related with enormous costs and organizational effort and are therefore very rare. Simulator trainings are more cost-effective. In addition, the training can be done at any time with little time effort. However, the existing simulator technology cannot be used to illustrate the complex damage scenarios outlined, since it does not allow for a cross-organizational training scenario.
A simulator network is being developed, which enables for the first time a simultaneous training of all units and control centers in a common and networked scenario.
The goal of the collaborative project is to allow these participants and structures to interact with each other in the form of a networked simulation. This allows for the first time a simultaneous practice of all units operating in the real case in a common networked scenario. For this purpose, the latest maritime simulator technology will be further extended and improved by Research and Development (R&D) activities within this project. In this process, existing technologies must be further developed and simulations for management and control centers must be developed and integrated for the first time. At the technical level, it is necessary to connect existing simulators and to supplement them with mobile, variable workstations which are also to be developed first.
Funding
Results
In the project simulations were developed for management and control centers and networked with ship guidance simulators. Mobile, modularly designed and ready-to-use simulators allow a decentralized simulation of several units over long distances. This new approach allows for a common inter-organizational learning of all units involved in the training. The approach will help to significantly improve the training and networking of rescue units in a major accident at sea.
Findings of the study are partly published in detail by a final report (German only) which is available online via the German National Library of Science and Technology (TIB):