Gabriele Cotta & Mauro Cerruto
Agostino G.Bruzzone
Sponsored: ANGOPI, Assorimorchiatori, BlueSky Technology, FedePiloti, UNIGE

Liophant Simulation Club

SAFETY FIRST

Virtual Reality and Harbour Operations

The Liophant Simulation Club has developed a simulation model that reproduces, with precise details, all the procedures to manage ship operations in harbour environments to guarantee and to optimise safety. The virtual world created by the model reproduces, in real-time, a large harbour with all the various types of terminals (raw materials, containers, passengers, etc.).








Each object has been modelled in detail in terms of shape, technical characteristics and operating procedures. The objects interact in the virtual world in order to reproduce all the operations. With this approach it possible to simulate the behaviour of all the entities in the harbour. The result of this research is the construction of a real Virtual Harbour. In this environment, all harbour operations can be monitored interactively - in real-time. Thus, it is possible to check the procedures and to control the operations from each command position/view point: mooring men on shore or in boats, the pilot's point of view, decks on ships, decks on tugboats or aerial views. This approach can be used to check and control all the details involving mooring operations. Naturally, this is also a very powerful support tool for training equipment for all the Harbour services (mooring men and boatmen, pilots, tug captains, etc.) and can reproduce all the conditions relative to scenarios, wind, interaction with other ships, etc. This tool can optimise safety procedures and the package can also help identify the optimal layouts for terminals in terms of efficiency.




The simulation proposed includes the operation of a large bulk carrier (250 m) to be moored at a pier in a restricted manoeuvring area with shallow bottoms. Another sample scenario displayed by the model is an operation to moor one of the latest generation passenger ships (350 m) with the auxiliary propellers out of service. The last example proposes a container carrier (225 m) to be moored in a large terminal in the internal area of the harbour.







Liophant Simulation Club	WWW: 	www.liophant.org
c/o:
Laboratorio di Logistica, via Molinero - Università di Genova, Sede di Savona - 17100 Savona, Italy
Tel: +39 010 353 2275 Fax: +39 010 317 750 Email: liophant@unige.it +39 019 97 398 +39 019 97 600
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