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Building on an already successful working relationship, the Royal Netherlands Navy Naval Forces Command and Damen Naval have signed a framework agreement to further their strategic collaboration in the field of Extended Reality (XR). XR is the combination of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).
This agreement follows on from a letter of intent that the two parties signed in June 2018 with the aim to develop XR scope within the naval arena. Since then, the two parties have worked closely and productively to create a VR training environment for patrol ships, which is being used at the Dutch Navy’s Simulation Centre Maritime (SimCenMar) in Den Helder.
Niek Marsé, Productmanager ILS & Support Services.
Niek Marsé, Damen Naval Product Manager ILS & Support Services, describes the VR training programme that is currently in use in Den Helder. “The user story starts with a blacked-out ship; there is a flashlight in the distance, and then the user starts to hear a radio which gives instructions. The aim is to bring the ship back to life; it really is about learning about the functional decomposition and dependencies between systems. The higher levels of the programme involve incoming enemies; the user has to mitigate that situation. We use this gamified approach to make it easier to understand these complex subjects.”
The framework agreement signed this year aims to continue with these successes and confirms the strategic cooperation between Damen Naval and the Royal Netherlands Navy. “We want to keep on developing, and we want to do that together with the Dutch Navy. This is the ‘soul’ of the framework agreement, it’s about cooperation and learning from each other. This has already started with us developing a gamified training environment for the Combat Support Ship.”
Niek sees opportunities for Damen Naval developing its VR expertise. “I really see a business model in this. It’s a long way into the future, but we could develop this type of training as a digital service to a wide range of customers. Gamified training is not only efficient and sustainable, but it also gives the possibility to create literally any type of operational scenario. Furthermore, it is a good way to engage young people.”
“We want to keep on developing, and we want to do that together with the Dutch Navy. This is the ‘soul’ of the framework agreement, it’s about cooperation and learning from each other." Niek Marsé
Because VR is such a versatile technology, there are further options. Niek: “Damen’s aims for VR are much broader than training goals. We can use VR in our whole value chain, from sales, initial designs, engineering, even in production. There are lots of ways this technology can help us in the future.”
The framework agreement also includes AR. “This is the addition of information to the real environment. We see this being used for multiple purposes in the future,” explains Niek. “However, because this technology needs to be pointed at something real, it is only useful to us in the latter part of our value chain; in production, for instance, it could be interesting for the planning and progress departments. For our clients, it could be very helpful in maintenance. However, this technology is moving so fast that we should put ourselves to the market as a ‘smart buyer’ instead of developing it ourselves. Our use of Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 is a prime example of this.”