Phil Thompson News

BMT has reported rapid growth in sales for its maritime simulator and has signed a number of contracts for its simulator system with cruise lines that include Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, and Seabourn in North America and P&O Cruises Australia.The orders for both office and ship-based licenses of the company’s REMBRANDT maritime simulator will support cruise lines on more than 39 ships.Dr. Phil Thompson, Simulation and Training Business Director at BMT, commented: “REMBRANDT delivers the highest standards of maneuvring simulation within an S-57 and S-63 ENC environment.

ASV Global (ASV) is leading a new £1.2 million research project in partnership with BMT to enhance the safety and reliability of autonomous navigation. The project team will use deep learning machine vision systems trained with a combination of simulated and real world data. Part funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, this project will enhance situational awareness enabling the USV to operate in extreme and congested marine environments. The Synthetic Imagery training for Machine Vision in Extreme Environments (SIMVEE) project will build upon ASV’s existing, COLREG cognisant, autonomous collision avoidance and path planning capability. The project will use BMT’s REMBRANDT simulator to train and validate ASV Global’s vision algorithms to detect and classify objects at sea.

BMT has announced that the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, Australia’s national transport safety investigator, has purchased a licence for its industry leading navigation and maneuvring simulator, REMBRANDT. This follows on from other recent adopters including the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch and the Dutch Safety Board. Phil Thompson, Managing Director at BMT comments: “We are seeing growing momentum and awareness within statutory bodies worldwide in the value of digital evidence generation.

As unmanned surface vessels continue to gain ground globally, a new project in the U.K. sets out to address challenges relating to the coexistence of autonomous systems and traditional manned vessels in shared water space. The £1.2 million ($1.6 million) research project, dubbed SWANS (Shared Waterspace Autonomous Navigation by Satellite), is funded by the U.K.’s innovation agency Innovate UK. Project lead BMT will work with partners ASV Global and Deimos Space UK to enable beyond line of sight…

BMT Ship & Coastal Dynamics (BMT)  announced a new contract with the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB). BMT has installed its marine navigation and maneuvering simulator, Rembrandt and will provide ongoing specialized training, to allow MAIB personnel to benefit from its unique attributes. Richard North, Technical Manager at MAIB said “Rembrandt is a well-regarded and trusted solution, widely used by a broad spectrum of stakeholders including pilot organizations…

BMT Group Ltd (BMT), an international maritime design, engineering and risk management consultancy, has announced a new commercial operating company which will focus on the provision of high value, innovative vessel performance management and decision support solutions for the maritime industry. BMT SMART Ltd. will draw on years of experience and knowledge from around the BMT group of companies to help accelerate the delivery of BMT’s SmartServices business line, and build a strong presence in the digital shipping markets.

BMT Surveys (BMT), a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, an international design, engineering and risk management consultancy, has announced the opening of a new office in Geneva, to support its rapid expansion across Europe. Providing further support to clients in Switzerland, the office will focus on P&I, Hull and Machinery, Cargo Insurance and maritime law through BMT’s global survey network, based in more than 250 ports worldwide. Initially, the Geneva office’s primary function will be to manage immediate survey actions and offer advice to clients using the surveyors’ network…

BMT Group is involved in a three-year research project called “Low Carbon Shipping: A Systems Approach.” The project is aimed at limiting the environmental impact of carbon emissions from the world’s shipping systems to comply with new legislation and mitigate global warming. 90% of goods arrive in the UK by ship and current estimates show shipping’s share of global emissions could increase to 20-30% by 2050. The project has received nearly $2.8 million from the Research Councils UK (RCUK) Energy Program, part of the nearly $869 million the program is investing in research in low-carbon technologies. BMT has been charged to develop technologies for low carbon shipping and more energy-efficient ship operations.

BMT Marine & Offshore Surveys Ltd, a subsidiary of BMT Group Ltd, the leading international maritime design, engineering and risk management consultancy, announced the appointment of Nigel Clark as Managing Director with former Managing Director Dr. Phil Thompson taking on the role of non-executive Chairman. Clark has been with the company since September 2009 having joined as Finance Director. He has a background in the marine and offshore sectors having held senior positions…