The HySeas III project originally envisioned a number of presentations at conferences, attendance at trade shows and workshops, as well as a dedicated launch event for the string test. The COVID-19 pandemic effectively prevented many of these from taking place, and so thought turned to how we might effectively disseminate the experience gained by the project in the new online normal.

The idea of an interactive 3D virtual environment was discussed, however the consortium needed to find a suitable partner to help bring this to fruition. 

In 2019, INTERFERRY led a Lloyd's Register Foundation funded project called FerrySafe to the Philippines, with the aim to understand how the country had managed to improve it's domestic ferry safety record in order to take the lessons learnt to other countries. In the course of interviewing many stakeholders, INTERFERRY member FastCat explained that they had implemented virtual reality training for their crew with a company called Seaversity who was also working with some of the maritime academies in the Philippines.

A call to Seaversity CEO Ephrem Dela Cerna early in 2021 was met with great enthusiasm and the consortium began to prepare drawings, photographs and information for Seaversity to model the assets.

We think that with the photo-realistic renders of all the string test components and the extremely accurate modelling of the string test site at PSW Power & Automation in Ågotnes, Seaversity have excelled themselves. One consortium member from Kongsberg who had spent many weeks on the test site quipped "It looks really familiar!"

See some of the modelled assets in the gallery below or head to the 3D virtual environment here or via the menu at the top of the page. The 3D virtual environment has an overview of all the components used in the string test as well as the interactive virtual environment which will guide you on a safety familiarisation of the site.