MARITIME SAFETY: MORE ENCOURAGEMENT OF THE BEST USE OF SIMULATORS

Importance of the safety at sea has been increased in the operations of the ships during last decades. To achieve a safe navigation, ships are equipped according to the International regulations and standards. Effective and safe performance in such environment requires both highly skilled individuals and a high degree of team coordination. Therefore, the training of the seafarers for updated information and for better skills also became a very crucial issue. Nowadays, marine engineers should have a wide range of professional knowledge and skills: from work with a hand tools to the use of computer technologies. In order to achieve the standard of competence, the trainee needs to be trained and evaluated continuously in the marine simulator on the basis of competence based training and assessment strategy defined in STCW 95 convention. Simulation is a powerful training tool because it allows the trainer to systematically control the schedule of practice within a safe and controlled learning environment. In the past, simulation training was perceived to be simple and computer based ; it was focused largely on the acquisition and assessment of individual technical skills. But now besides the technical skills, the role of simulations in training is being acknowledged with greater degree on behavioural skills. Trainees work from basic through advanced skill levels and learn how to operate specific navigational equipment, to advanced scenarios that require the simultaneous use of several instruments in order to navigate along a safe path and avoid collisions. In this paper models are useful for simulation as well as design of optimal power management systems that involve system reconfiguration and load shedding.