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Virtual prototyping of maritime systems and operations: applications of distributed co-simulations

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Abstract

In this work, we demonstrate the use of co-simulation technology in the maritime industry through four relevant examples of applications based on the outcome of the knowledge-building project Virtual Prototyping of Maritime Systems and Operations (ViProMa). Increasing computational capabilities opens for extended use of simulators in the design processes. Even complex systems can now be analyzed at an early stage of the design process and even in real time using distributed simulation technology. We conduct an assessment of the need for co-simulation technology in the industry, present a short background in co-simulation technology, and provide a short summary of the major findings and deliverables in the ViProMa project (http://viproma.no). The four case studies presented in this work pinpoint different advantages of using co-simulations in the industry, such as combining different modeling and simulation tools, improving collaboration without revealing sensitive information by using black-box models, testing conceptual designs in a fast and consistent manner before initiating building processes, and verifying the interplay between hardware and software in the simulation environment in hardware in the loop (HIL) tests. All the case studies are simulated using the open source co-simulation software Coral developed in the project, using the Functional Mock-up Interface (FMI) standard, and the co-simulation software can be downloaded from the project’s web site.

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Notes

  1. The project expired by the end of 2016.

  2. A fair word of warning is that, at the time of writing, Coral is still in a pre-1.0 stage where it is under heavy development and likely to undergo several changes before it matures to a stable state.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the partners involved in the ViProMa project, Research Council of Norway project no. 225322, for providing financial support for researching distributed systems for maritime systems and operations. The authors would also like to thank especially Rolls-Royce Marine for the contributions in the ViProMa Project.

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Correspondence to Stian Skjong.

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Skjong, S., Rindarøy, M., Kyllingstad, L.T. et al. Virtual prototyping of maritime systems and operations: applications of distributed co-simulations. J Mar Sci Technol 23, 835–853 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00773-017-0514-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00773-017-0514-2

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