Marine Institute First to Adapt Lockheed Martin’s VISTA Training for Civilian Marine Applications

The Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University (Marine Institute) in St. John’s, Newfoundland is the first post-secondary institute to adapt Lockheed Martin’s VISTA simulation and training tool for non-defence marine applications. The agreement between Lockheed Martin Canada and the Marine Institute was announced in December.

 

VISTA—visual integrated simulation and training application—is a simulation and training tool originally developed for the Canadian navy to train technicians in the operations, maintenance and repair of complex systems and equipment onboard Canadian vessels. This application has been adopted by navies in Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United States. In partnership with the Marine Institute, students and faculty will work with Lockheed Martin engineers to adopt the technology for use on non-military applications such as marine engineering and remotely operated vehicles.

 

Following a successful VISTA pilot project last fall, the Marine Institute will establish a dedicated laboratory to host the new technology, supported by $125,000 from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador’s Business Attraction Fund.

 

The Marine Institute asked Lockheed Martin Canada if they would be interested in helping them offer VISTA training for civilian applications, explains Paul Ryan, an electronics and computer technology instructor at the Marine Institute’s School of Ocean Technology. The VISTA lab will enable students to simulate maintenance routines on ROV’s, large marine diesel engines, and other pieces of equipment in a 3D visualization environment. “Compared to having two hours of contact time with a physical piece of equipment, the software will be available 24/7 in the computer lab,” notes Ryan. “That way, students can spend as much time as they want and get familiar with the equipment.”

 

Another plus is that if the student makes a mistake, instead of putting the piece of equipment out of commission, which could potentially happen when learning on a physical machine, the computer can simply be rebooted.

 

“This is a huge opportunity for the marine industry and our technicians and operators,” Ryan said. “We can simulate just about any piece of equipment we can think of. With today’s generation of students all quite familiar with video gaming and virtual technology, we expect them to take to this quite readily and benefit greatly from it.”

 

The VISTA lab will complement the Marine Institute’s array of simulation-based training. The Centre for Marine Simulation (CMS) at the Marine Institute is internationally recognized ads North America's most comprehensive research and training facility for marine simulation and technology. Areas of expertise include the modeling and simulation of harsh maritime environments; human performance in moving environments, small craft simulation, simulation of offshore oil and gas operations, and waterway risk analysis. CMS operates the following specialized simulation facilities:

- Full Mission Ship Bridge Simulator

- Cargo Operations Simulator (MODU and Tanker operations)

- Ballast Control

- Dynamic Positioning Simulator

- Navigation and Blind Pilotage Simulator

- Propulsion Plant Simulator

- GMDSS Simulator

- Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Simulator

- Process Control Simulator

- Lifeboat Launch Simulator 

- Web-based Navigation Instruments Simulator