Seaspan Shipyards of North Vancouver, Canada has officially launched its HoloShip facility. Described as “an immersive visualisation system”, the facility incorporates digital twin technology, enabling ship designers and engineers to virtually ‘walk through’ their newbuild plans and general arrangements before the first steel is cut.
The HoloShip facility houses a 3D theatre room, in which a detailed digital vessel model is projected onto a 5.6m-wide display wall. Seaspan says: “Using 3D and virtual reality [VR] headsets, participants are transported onto the ship, able to move about to view and interact with the space, as well as with the equipment, components, systems and subsystems.” HoloShip can also be accessed remotely, enabling users to participate in VR walkthroughs from any global location.
As such, Seaspan hopes that HoloShip will help engineering and design teams to assess and evaluate various scenarios throughout a vessel’s life-cycle, to optimise efficiency, safety and environmental sustainability. It should also enable them to catch any problems with the vessel and/or its systems prior to physical construction, sparing costly delays or overhauls further down the line. Seaspan adds: “Emerging digital twin technologies can be leveraged to aid vessel owners/operators to reduce downtime for repair; more effectively maintain, sustain and enhance fleets; and lower cost of ownership.”
Seaspan reports that it will initially use HoloShip in the development of the non-combat vessels that it is currently building for the Canadian Coast Guard and the Royal Canadian Navy as part of Canada’s National Shipbuilding Strategy. Speaking to Ship & Boat International in early April, Seaspan added that it is keen to open up HoloShip’s capabilities to external parties, to generate more user case studies for the facility. “For example, we’ve already had a local BC company utilise HoloShip for a wheelhouse arrangement review,” the yard reveals.
