NORTHDOCKS

GLOBAL RECOGNITION FOR QUALITY AND INNOVATION

Winner of an Epic MegaGrant for the Firefighter VR (™) Trainings / Northdocks GmbH receives $45.000 grant

Kiel July 17th, the Northdocks GmbH got rewarded with a Grant from Epic Games for the outstanding development of VR Trainings for Firefighter and Emergency associations.

Northdocks developed fully immersive training environments for a spectrum of scenarios using the Unreal Engine (UE4) from Epic Games.

Northdocks developed in cooperation with the Red Cross, the Björn Steiger Stiftung, the factory firefighter department of the Henkel AG and the Airport Leipzig/Halle as well as with number of suppliers such as Dräger GmbH and AWG Fitting GmbH (as part of the IDEX Corporation) six trainings scenarios in Virtual Reality.

Each scenario contains of at least one digital twin. The digital twin is a realistic representation of a tool or device getting used by the firefighter or paramedic. Besides the realistic visual impression of the device, Northdocks’ software developers managed to translate the physical attributes into the virtual environment. The combination of the visual, physical and mathematical transformation of the tools in the real world to the virtual scene allows Northdocks to call it a digital twin.

That creation of the digital twin is the foundation for the success of the VR Trainings from Northdocks and it is the reason for Epic Games to recognize the work done by Northdocks and it’s engineers.

Several tens of thousands playthroughs happened with the released version of the VR Trainings. Robustness of the software design had to be built in as well as the didactic concept to guide firefighters through the trainings in way that they stay motivated and alerted.

“We are very honored and proud to be rewarded by Epic Games”, said Joachim Perschbacher, managing director of Northdocks, “Besides the positive feedback from our customers and partners, we strongly believe that the potential of VR in training applications is far from fully utilized or even understood. With the help from Epic and their Unreal Engine, we are confident that we can add realism to our training environments to help firefighters and paramedics to get even better prepared for the case x.”

In the mid-term Northdocks in cooperation with the factory fire department association in Germany will be providing a content platform called “Firefighter VR” for all firefighters in Germany and beyond. It would allow even smaller firefighter brigades to take advantage of the latest technology for training of their firefighters. The benefits of training in VR are: No massive preparation is needed as well as dismantling of equipment, zero emission or pollution, it fits in any daily schedule as it is always available and it doesn’t cause danger nor damage. A great side effect will be the increase of attractiveness to the younger generation to ensure better acquisition of talent.

For your reference:

Interior attack - in cooperation with the CURRENTA GmbH & Co. OHG and AWG Fitting GmbH
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DBk1gA85DA

Stationary extinguishing systems - in cooperation with the Henkel factory fire brigade
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgWmeTSAXH0

Basic Life Support - in cooperation with the Björn Steiger Foundation and the professional fire brigade Wuppertal
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw62tA2v0QE

Northdocks GmbH
email: kontakt@northdocks.com