Cutting out the clutter

摘要

As new technology and navigation systems have been added to bridges over the years, the typical ship's command centre has come to look more and more like that of an aircraft, with switches, lights, and controls liberally spread over increasingly larger bridge layouts. At Nor-Shipping in May 2011, Rolls-Royce unveiled its Unified Bridge: a much less cluttered and simple design than many of those of its competitors also on display at the exhibition. At the time, the bridge on display probably attracted less attention than it might otherwise have, due to the fact that the company had just picked up the Nor-Shipping Next Generation Award for its innovative Environship design. However, there was clearly some interest in the concept as Rolls-Royce recently announced that the first example of the Unified Bridge system would be installed on Rolls-Royce designed UT 7 7 6 WP wave-piercing platform supply vessel currently under construction for Simon M?kster Shipping in Spain by Astillieros Gondan.