VSTEP has been contracted to supply simulators for the Nikola Vaptsarov Naval Academy's (NVNA) newly opened simulation centre in Bulgaria.

The new Centre for Integrated Management and Monitoring of the Coastal Zone will be equipped with a liquid cargo handling simulator with instructor station, a NAUTIS DNV Class A full mission bridge simulator (FMBS) with 240 FOV and a NI Accredited NAUTIS DP Class A FMBS with 180 FOV including instructor stations.

VSTEP will also provide two NAUTIS DNV Class C Desktop Simulators and two NAUTIS Class C DP Simulators for the training of naval and merchant marine students at the centre.

"We are very satisfied with the latest delivery of cutting edge NAUTIS simulators and our existing partnership with VSTEP."

NVNA rector commodore professor Boyan Kirilov Mednikarov said: “Nowadays we provide education and training to national and international students, naval cadets, and we provide post-graduate training abroad too.

“We are very satisfied with the latest delivery of cutting edge NAUTIS simulators and our existing partnership with VSTEP. This allows us to implement in our education and training the latest technologies in maritime simulation.

“With this cooperation and the recently delivered simulation complex we are about to sign a framework agreement for establishing a “Joint Developer Centre” at NVNA. Both parties will jointly develop front end technologies like next generation marine simulators with augmented reality training, CIC interfaces, maritime drone control and training, among others.”

Additionally, VSTEP has developed a live data module (LDM) to visualise the movements of real ships taken from an automatic identification system (AIS) system, or any other objects such as oil spill, man over board (MOB) or real weather sensor delivered conditions inside the simulator.

In 2014, the company delivered a NAUTIS Class A full mission bridge simulator and a RescueSim incident command simulator to NVNA.


Image: NVNA trains naval and merchant marine students. Photo: courtesy of VSTEP BV.