MAN selects Modest Tree for virtual-reality training

MAN Energy Solutions selected Modest Tree, a provider of simulation and training software, to develop a virtual-reality training solution for Royal Canadian Navy to train crews to operate and maintain the MAN engines onboard the Navy’s new Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ships. The training solution will be the first of its kind in the marine sector, according to Modest Tree.

Two MAN 4.5 megawatt diesel/electric propulsion engines will propel each Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship. MAN is a subcontractor of GE Canada, the Arctic and Offshore Patrol Ship Integrated Propulsion System Integrator. In 2015, Irving Shipbuilding, the prime contractor and shipbuilder, selected GE Canada to provide electrical power, propulsion systems, installation and commissioning services for each vessel.

MAN will lead and manage the overall project and provide the technical input. Modest Tree will develop the software application using Modest Tree’s Modest3D software to help ensure crews can effectively and proficiently perform the MAN’s engine-maintenance program. GasTops will develop a customized engine-training device to use with the Modest Tree software enabling the application to operate just as the engine would in real life.

The partnership between MAN and Modest Tree is part of Canada’s Industrial and Technological Benefits program that ensures 100 percent of the value of significant defence contracts such as those under the National Shipbuilding Strategy are spent in Canada.