Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping has put in operation a simulator for maritime autonomous surface ships (MASS) personnel training in St. Petersburg.

The opening ceremony was attended by Victor Olersky, Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Admiral Makarov State University of Maritime and Inland Shipping, Professor Sergey Baryshnikov, Rector of the Admiral Makarov SUMIS, members of the Supervisory Board, and heads of maritime and inland waterways transport enterprises.

The Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport has certified Makarov Training Centre for compliance with the requirements of regulations of STCW Convention 1978, as amended, and granted Certificate allowing to train autonomous ship navigation specialists in 10 advanced training programmes at the Professional Development Programmes Institute of the University and issue appropriate certificates to personnel.

The training of MASS specialists is important due to the active implementation of A- and E-Navigation technologies in the global shipping industry, the development of a new regulatory framework in the international and national legislation. The International Maritime Organization is developing the MASS Code, which is expected to be adopted in 2026. In Russia, Federal Law No. 294 of July 10, 2023 is coming into force on March 01, 2024. It aims to regulate amendments to national legislation to ensure the legal status of MASS.

In implementing the project, the University formed a project team including specialists from two institutes — Professional Development Programmes Institute and Maritime Academy, as well as experts from the Krylov State Research Centre and PJSC “Gazprom Neft”. The project team developed the technical specifications for the new simulator complex, put the simulator into operation, trained the instructor’s staff in cooperation with the Russian University of Transport (RUT-MIIT), developed educational programmes and methodological recommendations, and successfully get approval by the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping Commission.

University MASS simulator:

• is designed on the certified national software platform, registered in the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media of the Russian Federation.
• is developed for training of MASS crew of civilian commercial fleet, Remote operation centre personnel, VTS operators, shore services, including their coordinated interaction tasks.
• provides an opportunity to conduct research and develop practical recommendations in a-navigation and e-navigation based on virtual and augmented reality technologies.
• enables MASS operators to practice their actions with the help of decision support system for collision avoidance.
• enables to perfect elements of interaction between autonomous and conventional ships, and also, in perspective, to handle several autonomous ships simultaneously.
• allows to control and manage MASS systems and automatics on the basis of multifunctional autonomous navigation system.
• implements the principles of route data exchange between ships and shore and allows to practice interaction with regard to the specifics of additional digital information.
• allows simulation of negative malicious information impact, and to practice both methods of its identification and actions to be taken in case of malfunctions in video and telemetry data transmission channels, loss of sensor signals and receipt of false signals, presence of false targets, onboard equipment malfunctions.

In accordance with the concept adopted by the university, the simulator offers three versions, giving a certain flexibility in training:

• traditional console version of full-scale simulators;
• VR (virtual reality) technologies;
• AR technologies (virtual and augmented reality).

The simulator focuses on modelling the interaction of Rosmorport semi–autonomous vessels – the «Marshal Rokossovsky» and «General Chernyakhovsky» ferries, as well as the Remote operation centre for these ferries navigating between Ust-Luga and Baltiysk.

According to Sergey Aysinov, director of the Professional Development Programmes Institute, the University plans further development of a training complex, its functionality and conduction of additional researches: «We expect together with the simulator supplier to develop a real ship navigation system. The simulator will allow us not only to implement advanced training programmes, but also to integrate it into the main educational programmes for cadets, as well as to use it as a scientific and practical laboratory for conducting scientific researches and experiments. Taking into account another strategic project «Ice Navigation», we intend to create an integrated simulator complex to train how to use the information from the Marine operations Headquaters of the Northern Sea Route General Administration, as well as a Unified digital services platform to be implemented by State Atomic Energy Corporation «Rosatom» in 2024.»

The commissioning of the MASS simulator was carried out by Makarov Training Centre within the framework of the Federal project «Autonomous Navigation» with the financial, organizational and methodological support of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and the Federal Agency for Maritime and River Transport. The implementation of the project will confirm University leading status in Russia, and ensure the introduction of the latest technologies into the higher education programmes, professional development programmes and simulator training.