Successful introduction of Barco's radar simulation software at German Water Police Academy
KORTRIJK, Belgium, 15 November 2006 - Barco is proud to announce that its radar simulation software has been successfully installed and put into operation as part of the new radar simulation training system of the German Water Police Academy (Wasserschutzpolizei-Schule, WSPS) in Hamburg. The official inauguration of the system took place on 11 September 2006. Thanks to the joint capabilities of Barco, ELNA Elektro-Navigation und Industrie GmbH, and IN-Innovative Navigation GmbH, the highly sophisticated simulation system was developed and delivered on time, despite a very demanding time schedule. The German Water Police can now claim to have one of the most modern radar simulators within Europe.
Upon certifying the simulator for use as radar training and examination tool, experts from the Traffic Technologies Centre of the German Federal Waterways Administration (Fachstelle für Verkehrstechniken) and the industrial services company German Lloyd were laudatory of the simulator training system and of Barco's simulation software. "This system provides the most realistic and comprehensive radar video generation I have seen among European ship simulators," stated Hermann Haberkamp, Germany's leading expert for inland and coastal radar navigation.The WSPS radar simulation training system is being used by the Hamburg Water Police Academy for the training of all German Water Police officers. The system consists of three trainee consoles that are set up like a real ship bridge with original radar, radar display and navigational instruments. To come as close as possible to the conditions on the helm of a modern police boat, the simulator generates and processes the raw analog signals which are required to drive the radar hardware and the entire navigational equipment. Furthermore, the system includes a control room, in which two instructors can monitor and direct the trainees’ operations, a separate exercise preparation room and a central server room.
The simulator allows to conduct radar and navigation exercises both on coastal and inland waterways, taking the specific conditions and characteristics of each domain into account. The trainee can choose between twelve different types of vessels, ranging from a small speedboat to an unwieldy freighter. Finally, the simulator is able to include live traffic of the port of Hamburg into the training exercise, which makes the training experience even more realistic.
For this project, Barco provided its simulation software, based on the commercial off-the-shelf product OPSCENTER SIMULATION - VIRTUAL WATERWAY (VWW). VIRTUAL WATERWAY is a virtual navigation environment specifically designed to simulate traffic on inland waterways and coastal waters. The simulation software was originally developed at the Institute for System Dynamics at the University of Stuttgart for the testing of inland vessel autopilots. The simulation focuses on realistically modeling the dynamics of vessels in water and on generating a variety of typical sensor measurements such as radar, Automated Identification System (AIS), or Global Positioning System (GPS) data. Furthermore, the simulation takes into account various environmental influences like rain, wind or current. Thanks to the ability to simulate a large number of vessels and objects, even complex traffic situations can be created, which enables the trainers to develop a variety of diverse scenarios for flexible and comprehensive training lessons.
About Barco
Barco, a global technology company headquartered in Kortrijk, Belgium, designs and develops visualization products for a variety of professional markets. Barco has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.
For fiscal year 2005, Barco posted net sales of euro 712.0 million.
Barco’s ordinary shares are listed on the Brussels/Euronext stock exchange. Barco is a BEL 20 and a Next 150 company. Share information may be accessed on Bloomberg under the symbol BAR BB and on Reuters under BARBt.BR.
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