Tug Bridge News

Force Technology won a deal to deliver its SimFlex4 AR solution as part of an extensive upgrade for the Queensland-based maritime simulation and training facility, Smartship Australia, which focuses on professional pilotage training and development. Smartship's facility in Brisbane includes five marine simulators, including two full mission bridges, one Tug bridge, and two-part task simulators.FORCE Technology’s SimFlex simulator was originally selected when Smartship Australia was first established in 2011.

Towage provider Svitzer has selected Kongsberg Digital to deliver new simulators in support of crew training at its Port of Newcastle base in Australia. The contract with Kongsberg will help create a training center of excellence for the deployment of Svitzer’s new TRAnsverse tug vessels entering service in Newcastle in early 2025.The contract comprises the delivery of a training suite in Q2 2024. The delivery encompasses a full-mission 360° K-Sim Navigation simulator configured as a tug bridge, and a part-task 180° K-Sim Navigation ship’s bridge simulator.

Japanese shipping line Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) collaborated with Oki Electric Industry (OKI), to launch a joint study on the use of OKI's bird's-eye view monitoring system to monitor a 360° field of view around a tugboat.The system was installed on the tugboat Asaka Maru and a preliminary experiment was conducted, said a press release.As a tugboat approaches a large vessel for assistance, only a small part of the vessel's hull can be seen from tug's bridge, and therefore, the tugboat relies on instructions through the radio from the pilot onboard the target vessel.The experiment was done in a situation with OKI's "FlyingView" setting four fish-eye cameras on the mast…

Alphatron Marine has handed over the turnkey AlphaBridge tugboat console solution onboard the RT Trident to Seabulk Towing Inc. located in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. This tug bridge concept has been fully equipped with a JRC/Alphatron Marine navigation and communication package. The bridge is comprised of two ergonomically designed consoles with a central, rotatable, captain’s chair mounted on sliding rails. The layout of the consoles was designed in cooperation with the intended users.

Safe navigation is a priority operating principle for the UK’s largest energy Port, the Port of Milford Haven. And earlier this week the Port demonstrated that commitment with the unveiling of its new, state of the art marine navigation simulator. Significant investment has been made in developing this new facility, and it is an exceptional tool. Built using MARIN’s latest software, DOLPHIN, the navigation suite is positioned to lead the market in training and exercise scenarios.

The Port of London Authority (PLA) has invested £250,000 to upgrade its ship’s bridge simulator, adding a full tug bridge simulator in a move that is set to enable a boost in port trade and helps terminals verify their expansion plans. The Thames is the U.K.’s busiest waterway, handling more than 45 million metric tons of cargo a year. For over a decade the bridge simulator has been an essential tool for training the PLA pilots who guide ships to and from their berths on the Thames.

Mass. Maritime responds to industry demand, reloads with cutting edge Transas equipment, and moves to the head of the brown water training queue. It was a dark and stormy night with choppy seas. I didn’t hit anything, but I did run aground twice while at the helm of the tug boat simulator at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) in Buzzards Bay. But then that’s the point – to let students safely make mistakes and get the closest thing to the real-life experience they need – and would have a limited shot at otherwise on the equipment they’ll be handling where the jobs are today…

Massachusetts Maritime Academy unveils new simulation facilities in newly opened American Bureau of Shipping Information Commons Building. Massachusetts Maritime Academy (MMA) recently hosted the grand opening ceremony for the start-of-the-art, American Bureau of Shipping Information Commons Building, which houses the Academy’s new cutting-edge Full Mission Ship Simulator, supplied by Transas USA Inc. The 42,000 square foot academic building combines maritime tradition with the latest technology in maritime training…

The installation of a new suite of navigation simulators has been completed at the all-new Great Barrier Reef International Marine College (GBRIMC) in Cairns, Australia. Installation took place in January 2011 and consisted of a 270 degree DNV Class A full mission bridge simulator, a 180 degree tug bridge, 8 destktop navlab stations with part task simulators for ECDIS training and an instructor station. The simulator delivery features exercise area databases of Australia's busiest ports.

The UK's first full active escort tug simulator is to be installed on Merseyside. The Polaris(tm) System, manufactured by Kongsberg Maritime Ship Systems AS, allows tug captains to learn how to escort large ships in a completely safe, simulated environment. The escort tug simulator-training facility is an enhancement of the 360* ship's bridge simulator at Birkenhead-based Lairdside Maritime Centre, which is the only one of its kind in the UK. It is expected to be fully in service by November. The £50,000 project has been jointly funded by Shell UK Ltd, Svitzer Marine and Wirral Waterfront, a single Regeneration Budget Initiative funded by the North West Development Agency.

When a pilot learning to guide ships along the Mississippi River makes a mistake and crashes into a New Orleans wharf, the only thing that ends up damaged is his ego. That's because the mistakes happen in a ship simulator housed in an old movie theater in Covington, La. The $1 million simulator can place a pilot on the bridge of a ship anywhere along the river between the mouth of the Mississippi and Baton Rouge. Scenes projected on the walls of the simulator, located in what once was the old DeLuxe movie theater in downtown Covington across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, accurately depict every aspect of the 240 miles of waterway.