Virtual reality supports crew in new ship familiarity

Damen Naval, the Dutch Ministry of Defence, ship operator Materieel & IT Command (COMMIT), and the Royal Netherlands Navy have jointly created a virtual reality (VR) package of a combat support ship, Den Helder, even before the vessel has been delivered.

The breakthrough is enabling the ship’s crew to familiarise themselves with the ship ahead of its delivery. It is the first time that a VR version of an entire ship has been created for the Royal Netherlands Navy. 

"The slogan for new crew members on board used to be 'Know your ship within 24 hours'. Now we can change that slogan to: 'Know your ship 24 hours before you board'," declared Damen Naval Project Director Arjan Risseeuw. "The virtual ship is a copy of the design created in our 3D design software, Cadmatic. Everything is in it: the steel, the pipes and cableways, the equipment, and all the spaces. So, you can walk through a virtual version of the ship while the real ship is still being built."

Björn Mes is a technical specialist and team leader at Damen Naval's VR division. "We have never put such a large and detailed ship in VR before, and the combined team from Damen Naval and the [Ministry of Defence's maritime simulation centre] spent a lot of hours 'on board'. You don't often see VR-projects of such scale, even within Damen Naval. It was a challenging project, but the end result looks really good."

Damen Naval used a new facility – toolchain – specially developed for VR projects like this. The system enables more automation and speeds up the VR construction process.

Mes explained: "By cleverly using the models and metadata from our 3D software, we can save a lot of time. A great example is the pipework in the engine room. Previously, a colleague spent weeks putting all the pipes and valves in the right place in the VR model. With the new toolchain, most of the CSS engine room pipework is generated in a few minutes, and we only need to check it and adjust where necessary."

Den Helder is expected to go on sea trials early in 2024 and will be delivered to COMMIT later in the year. The vessel will then be commissioned in 2025.