"At Carnival Corporation, our number one priority is the safety and comfort of the nearly 11 million guests who sail with us every year. For us, providing the world's best training to our deck and engineering officers is essential in helping us meet that priority". Captain Hans Hederstrom, Managing Director of CSMART.
Back in 2015, Carnival Corporation, the world’s largest cruise company, made a significant investment to expand and upgrade its world-class CSMART Center for Simulation and Marine Training located in Almere, the Netherlands.
Wärtsilä stepped up to the plate to deliver an immersive real-world situational environment in which multiple crew members can operate and interact simultaneously, as if on a real vessel.
Together, we set the standard by which all training should be measured.
The challenge: To equip the CSMART training facility with the ultimate maritime simulation solution, which can completely replicate Carnival’s ships on shore, catering to an annual throughput of 6500 deck and engineering officers undergoing extensive training.
Simulations for 12 cruise ship models and 60 sailing areas were developed including the most popular port calls for Carnival vessels: Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Singapore and Glacier Bay, Alaska.
The nautical part of the simulation complex comprises four full-mission bridges with 220 degrees horizontal field of view and two additional sets of bridge wings with dome projections, each with a 180 degree field of view. As in the real world, each full-mission bridge has its own safety center for training in abnormal and emergency situations.
Six part-task bridges with 120 degrees horizontal field of view provide for specific operations training and assessment. Each bridge is interfaced with onboard bridge systems used on Carnival cruise ships. Seven instructor control stations are used for monitoring and control of the bridges. There are four de-briefing rooms one for each full mission simulator.
CSMART also received a new modelling station comprising Model Wizard and Virtual Shipyard software, which allow the center to edit and create their own sailing areas and ship models, taking full advantage of Wärtsilä’s simulation R&D capabilities. Fast-time simulation capability allows for fast forward run and repetition of port entry or disembarking which is ideal for port development and maneuvering studies.
The technological simulators section (TechSim) consists of four full-mission engine room simulators, 12 sets of virtual machinery space stations, two high voltage training systems, two engine room simulator classrooms (12 stations each), and four debriefing stations and rooms.
CSMART requirements | Our approach |
Power upgrade and optimization to avoid running new cables from the nearest power station. | Virtualisation of simulation tasks into an nVidia Grid System reduces the need for physical machines by 77% and sees a subsequent 30% reduction in energy consumption |
24/7 operations with guaranteed 0% downtime
| Introduction of full inter-switching capabilities put any task on any screen within the Simulator (Blackbox IP-matrix) allowing for continuous operation. |
Recordings of all activities inside the Simulator to be made available for debriefings | CCTV camera technology observes and records everything on the bridges and in the engine room to give a full picture of team training. Access to recordings of any task is available on any screen within the simulator. |
Next-Gen realism for engine room and machinery operation simulations | Introduction of unique high tech ‘gamification’ technology with 3D Engine compartments walk-through including usage of avatars controlled via large touchscreens or gaming controller. |
