Digital Twins for Emergency Response & Training on Ships
Digital Twins could save lives in an emergency.
Imagine a ship is partially submerged because of a marine casualty, and rescue crews are trying to determine where potential survivors are located within the ship. In the past, they may have relied on 2nd hand knowledge from shore-based personnel or drawings (general arrangements), which may be hard to interpret for the rescue teams. Some ships may have 3D CAD renderings of their vessel, which may assist in an emergency; however, they don’t show the as-built condition, which would be essential to rescue crews for planning their operation.
Remote Training to Prevent Disaster.
Vessel crew and shoreside rescue personnel can now simulate scenarios on their vessel without taking the ship out of commission to do training. Entire departments can share screens on ZOOM and walk/talk through scenarios like Abandon Ship, Fire Drills, or Machinery Failure while taking turns navigating the ship.
This training could prove invaluable in case of an actual emergency by providing personnel with another opportunity to build muscle memory and familiarization with all parts of their ship.
Learning from Previous Incidents.
Sometimes the best way to prevent future accidents is to learn from the past. Digital Twins and the technology that powers them (LIDAR + SLAM Modeling) allow us to capture the as-built conditions within a few hours/days. This model can then be compared against the situation before the incident to help re-create the cause of the incident and help reduce the likelihood of recurrence. Most mariners are familiar with learning about safety and engineering by studying the past. Digital Twins can allow users to view the past and immerse themselves in the ships to comprehend the what/why of accidents.
Take a loot at the below Digital Twin and imagine your team using this to study the fire plan and run through drills.
As you can see in the model above, the fire plan is detailed in the engine room, allowing a user to plan escape routes or know exactly where the FFE are located. (To navigate to the engine room, locate the hand on the back deck, click on it to land on the deck, and then navigate forward into the accommodations and then down the stairs to the engine room)
We look forward to seeing how this technology can be used in the future to help prevent accidents and assist rescue teams in the unfortunate case that an accident does occur.
