Morild Ship & Bridge

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Morild Ship & Bridge is a professional full-mission bridge simulator designed to make high-fidelity simulator training available beyond the conventional simulator center. The complete system runs as one application on a single high-performance PC or laptop, using Virtual Reality to replace the large visual systems and physical bridge installations traditionally associated with full-mission simulators.

This compact architecture enables simulator training to be conducted in-house, onboard, or across multiple locations with participants and instructors connected to the same live scenario. Despite the significantly reduced infrastructure, Morild delivers advanced dynamic vessel physics, high-fidelity real-time visualization, a fully interactive virtual bridge, and integrated navigation and bridge applications for professional maritime training.


Virtual bridge interaction

In Morild Ship & Bridge, bridge controls, displays and equipment are fully virtualized and operated directly within VR. This provides a high degree of flexibility in configuring bridge layouts, equipment and control systems to reflect different vessel types, propulsion arrangements and operational requirements.

Our VR interaction system is designed to make operating the virtual bridge natural and intuitive. Controls and equipment can be interacted with directly, allowing users to concentrate on the training scenario and their operational tasks rather than on learning how to operate the simulator.

Participants are represented by VR avatars within the shared environment, allowing bridge team members to see and interact with each other naturally during multi-user exercises.

Marine pilot training

Norwegian Coastal Administration’s Pilot division training with Morild Ship & Bridge simulator system.


Academic research & industry collaboration

Two independent university studies have evaluated the Morild Ship & Bridge Simulator and found it to perform very favorably compared with advanced conventional simulator systems. These findings are consistent with the positive feedback we receive from users and support our aim of combining high simulation quality with a significantly more cost-effective and accessible system.

Our ongoing collaboration with academia, maritime research institutions, industry professionals and customers contributes directly to the continued development of the simulator. By incorporating research findings, operational experience and user feedback, we continuously refine both the technology and its application to maritime training.

The Morild simulator system is also used in the Arctic University of Tromsø’s onshore operation center (OOC) to support the development of next-generation autonomous maritime systems

Academic research

The Arctic University of Norway, Norwegian University of Science and Technology and University of South-Eastern Norway are using Morild VR Ship & Bridge in their research and studies.


Virtual touch-screen display

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The Morild VR Ship & Bridge Simulator recreates the modern ship bridge as an interactive virtual environment. Bridge displays, controls and equipment can be operated directly in VR, allowing users to interact naturally with the systems required during a training exercise.

Digital bridge applications play a central role in modern ship handling and navigation. Our bridge applications are designed in accordance with the OpenBridge design system and guidelines, providing a consistent and intuitive user interface across the virtual bridge. OpenBridge is specifically developed for maritime and industrial user interfaces, with an emphasis on clarity, consistency and safe operation.

The virtual bridge includes applications such as ECDIS, ARPA Radar, Conning and AUX. Our Conning application is automatically configured according to the vessel and propulsion-system setup defined in the vessel configurator, ensuring that the information and controls presented to the user reflect the vessel being simulated.


Multi-user team training

A man sitting in a black gaming chair with red accents, smiling and wearing a virtual reality headset, in front of a large monitor displaying a boat on a river.

Tugboats & pilots

Pilots from Lübeck, Germany and tugboat captains from BOLUDA Deutschland GmbH training together in same scenario with bulk carrier and multiple tugboats.

Morild Ship & Bridge supports complex exercises involving multiple participants and independently operated vessels within the same simulation environment. Scenarios can include vessel traffic, ship interaction in restricted waterways, locks, tug and mooring operations, wind and currents, and communication between bridge teams and other vessels.

Participants can connect from different geographical locations and operate together within the same live scenario. Instructors can also connect remotely, allowing training to be conducted without requiring all participants and instructors to be physically co-located.

AI-controlled agents can perform selected roles onboard, enabling individual users or incomplete bridge teams to conduct team-based exercises when a complete human crew is not available.

Multi-user sessions can be set up easily over a local network or through the internet using the Morild cloud system. With servers hosted in multiple regions worldwide, the system is designed to provide reliable connectivity, high bandwidth and low latency for distributed simulation sessions. Access to the Morild cloud service is included with the software subscription.

World map with interconnected user icons representing geographically distributed training, showing global connectivity through cloud servers.

Celestial navigation

A star chart displaying numerous stars on a dark background with grid lines and spectral type color key at the bottom.

Our simulator includes an astronomically accurate celestial system that reproduces the night sky according to the simulated geographical location, date and time. Stars and other celestial bodies appear in their correct positions, providing realistic conditions for night-time navigation and celestial observation.

The underlying astronomical model accounts for factors such as the Earth’s axial tilt, precession and the movement of celestial bodies. This allows the simulated sky to change naturally with location and time, closely reflecting real-world celestial conditions.

The result is a realistic night-time environment that supports training in visual orientation and celestial navigation, adding another layer of accuracy and realism to maritime training scenarios.


Vessel configurator

Our Vessel Configurator enables users to tailor base models from the Morild vessel database to specific operational and training requirements. Propulsion and steering systems, vessel characteristics, loading condition, bridge equipment configuration and bridge layout can all be configured for different use cases.

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Unlike systems based primarily on fixed manoeuvring models, Morild's hydrodynamic and propulsion modelling has been designed to respond dynamically to changes in vessel configuration. A single vessel model can therefore be used to create a wide range of operational scenarios with different displacement, draft, trim, propulsion and steering configurations.

Vessel stability characteristics can also be adjusted, including the vertical distance from keel to center of gravity (KG), allowing changes in roll behavior and vessel response to be represented within the simulation.

This means that users are not limited to one predefined operating condition for a vessel. The same vessel can be configured to represent different loading conditions and operational setups, significantly increasing the range of training scenarios that can be created from each vessel model.

Individual vessel models are verified against available sea-trial data to ensure accurate and realistic behaviour. We also work with highly experienced seafarers and maritime professionals who contribute operational verification, testing and feedback.

Our vessel database includes a wide range of vessel types and is continuously expanded with new models. All existing and newly added vessel models are included as part of the license subscription.

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Location geo-database system

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Our fully automated, dynamic geodatabase system generates high-detail, geographically accurate training environments from the best available geospatial data for each location, using our proprietary in-house developed algorithms. This provides the spatial accuracy required for realistic navigation and ship-handling exercises, while reducing the need for extensive manual environment creation.

As source data is updated, environments can be regenerated to reflect changes in navigational infrastructure, bathymetry and port infrastructure - keeping training locations current and operationally relevant over time.

The system is designed to evolve with improvements in available source data and computer-graphics technology, allowing existing locations to increase in detail, accuracy and visual fidelity over time without having to be rebuilt from scratch.


Scenario builder & instructor station

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A key advantage of Morild Builder is the ability to create reusable training environments that can be adapted to different crews, vessels and competence levels. An instructor can start with an existing scenario and quickly modify vessel traffic, environmental conditions, starting positions or other parameters to create new variations of the same exercise. This makes it possible to progressively increase difficulty, repeat specific situations and build structured training programs around defined learning objectives.

Scenarios can also be prepared in advance and shared between instructors or locations, helping organisations maintain a consistent approach to simulator training across different teams. At the same time, instructors retain the flexibility to intervene during a live exercise and adapt the scenario as it develops, allowing training to respond dynamically to participant decisions and performance.

Click here to explore Morild Builder.


Key features & functionalities

  • Full-Mission Bridge Simulation

    • Professional ship-handling, navigation and bridge-operation training in a fully interactive virtual environment

  • Advanced Dynamic Vessel Physics

    • Hydrodynamic behavior responds dynamically to vessel condition, including displacement, draft and trim

  • High-Fidelity Real-Time Visualization

    • Detailed maritime environments and vessel models designed for realistic visual representation at both near and far distances

  • Fully Virtualized Bridge

    • Bridge displays, controls and equipment are operated directly in VR, enabling flexible vessel-specific bridge layouts and configurations

  • Integrated Bridge Applications

    • Virtual ECDIS, ARPA Radar, Conning and AUX applications designed in accordance with OpenBridge design guidelines

  • Vessel-Adaptive Conning System

    • Conning displays are automatically configured according to the vessel and propulsion-system setup

  • Multi-Vessel Scenarios

    • Supports complex exercises involving multiple independently operated vessels and participants

  • Interactive VR Avatars

    • Participants can see and interact with other users inside the shared virtual training environment

  • Dynamic Geospatial Environments

    • Training locations are generated from high-quality geospatial data to provide detailed and geographically accurate environments

  • Accurate Night-Sky Simulation

    • Astronomical modelling reproduces celestial conditions according to geographical location, date and time for realistic night-time navigation

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Benefits

  • Train wherever your crew is

    • deploy simulator training in-house, onboard or at other suitable locations

  • Reduce travel and lodging costs

    • bring the simulator to the participants rather than sending participants to a simulator center

  • Reduce infrastructure and complexity

    • eliminate much of the dedicated hardware, display systems and physical bridge equipment associated with conventional simulators

  • Increase training capacity

    • easier access to the simulator makes more frequent training and training of more personnel practical

  • Connect participants and instructors across locations

    • conduct collaborative training without requiring everyone to be physically co-located

  • Adapt training to your vessels

    • virtual bridge layouts, equipment and propulsion configurations can be tailored to different vessel types

  • Keep training environments current and relevant

    • data-driven environments and navigational infrastructure can be regenerated as improved or updated source data becomes available

  • Scale training across your organization

    • support anything from individual sessions to complex multi-user, multi-vessel exercises

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Images from the simulator

Below are images captured directly from the Morild simulator system. Our real-time visualization system uses advanced rendering technology to achieve highly detailed, photorealistic maritime environments. This level of visual fidelity contributes to immersion and helps create a convincing and realistic training environment for the user.

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