TOWARDS A DESIGN SIMULATOR FOR OFFSHORE SHIP BRIDGES Helge T. Kristiansen Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences Aalesund University College N-6025, Aalesund, Norway E-mail: hkr@hials.no Kjetil Nordby Institute of Design The Oslo School of Architecture and Design N-0130, Oslo, Norway KEYWORDS Conceptual design, Simulation, Simulators, Prototyping, Design simulator, Fuzzy front-end. ABSTRACT The development of new design concepts for ship bridges on modern offshore vessels is a considerable challenge for engineering and design professions. Such ships perform advanced missions in extreme environmental conditions that are very different to those in which most design processes take place. Although site visits can help narrow this gap, such opportunities are limited by both funding and access constraints. We suggest the use of design simulators as tools for conceptual design, mediating collaboration between various disciplines and users. This paper reports on work in progress, in which we analyse and explore possibilities and challenges regarding the use of a simulator for the design of ship bridges, comparing the nature of conceptual design with the current use and capabilities of existing maritime simulators. Through this analysis, we suggest there is potential for combining training simulators with tools and techniques from conceptual design processes in ship bridge design. We also discuss some challenges regarding the effective use of simulators as a design tool. INTRODUCTION The maritime industry of Sunnmøre, Norway, has a long tradition of building specialized vessels for operations such as platform supply, anchor handling, and sub- sea field-interventions. The region has a cluster of companies that develop solutions for the demanding needs of the oil industry. Due to continuous introduction of new technologies on offshore ship bridges, these working environments are increasing in complexity. This imposes additional mental burden—and requires greater competence—among crew members (Petersen and Lützhöft 2009). Recent attention to the complexity of work environments has led to greater use of industrial- and interaction designers in bridge design processes. These fields focus on the design of user-centred products and systems by applying tools and techniques to explore and resolve complex design problems (Lawson 2006). These fields place great emphasis on the early stages of the design phase, during which major changes are made. A ship bridge is a complex workplace that is both very different from the context of design processes and difficult to access. This is a challenge within conceptually-oriented design processes that require access to user context while also maintaining rapid development of new design concepts. In this article, we present work in progress that investigates how simulators can better support early-phase design of modern ship bridges. The work draws on experiences in managing a conceptual design process within the on- going research project Ulstein Bridge Concept (UBC). UBC is oriented towards developing next-generation ship bridges, and is a collaboration between The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), Aalesund University College, Ulstein Power & Control (UPC), and Kwant Controls. The project currently employs two design labs at AHO and UPC. The UPC lab at Aalesund has installed a simulator from Offshore Simulator Centre AS (OSC, www.offsim.no), while the Oslo lab connects remotely to the simulator. The project has also used simpler, game-based simulators (Ship Simulator Extremes 2010, Shipsim.com) as part of the process. In the following sections, we outline some basic characteristics of traditional ship simulators before describing conceptual design with an emphasis on goals, methods, and tools. Further, we compare conceptual design and the capabilities of existing simulators. Based on the comparison, we suggest future developments that might enhance the use of simulators as tools in early-phase conceptual design. SHIP BRIDGE SIMULATORS IN DESIGN Conceptual design is an important but challenging part of design processes, which is oriented towards driving innovation in the maritime sector. This is particularly important, since it is difficult to envision proposed ideas in the context of the full complexity of an operational ship bridge. We suggest this problem might be approached through increasing use of ship simulators in early-phase conceptual design. Currently, most simulators are used for educational purposes, performance evaluation, and research in various domains. Applications range from training simulators in aviation (Page 2000), medical (Rosen 3URFHHGLQJV WK (XURSHDQ &RQIHUHQFH RQ 0RGHOOLQJ DQG 6LPXODWLRQ (&06 :HEM｡UQ 5HNGDOVEDNNHQ 5RELQ 7 %\H +RX[LDQJ =KDQJ (GLWRUV ,6%1   ,6%1  &'