OPTIMAL SHIP DESIGN AND SIMULATOR DEVELOPMENT USING SYSTEMS INDENTIFICATION TECHNIQUES

OPTIMIZATION IN SHIP SYSTEM DESIGN IS A PROBLEM WHICH, IF PROPERLY FORMULATED AND SOLVED, WOULD HAVE GREAT ECONOMIC IMPACT. HOWEVER, THE PROBLEM CANNOT BE EASILY CAST MATHEMATICALLY AS A CLASSICAL SINGLE OBJECTIVE OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM. IN SHIP SYSTEM DESIGN A CONSIDERABLE NUMBER OF CRITERIA MUST BE SATISFIED OF WHICH SOME CAN ONLY BE FORMULATED IN FUZZY TERMS. THIS IS PARTICULARLY TRUE IN MODELING/SIMULATING SHIP MANEUVERABILITY, WHERE THE ADEQUATENESS OF A SIMULATOR CAN ONLY BE JUDGED BY CONSULTING A SHIP MASTER/PILOT. TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL SHIP SIMULATOR, THE EQUATIONS OF SHIP MOTION MUST BE IDENTIFIED. THIS SYSTEMS IDENTIFICATION PROBLEM IS ILL-POSED. THIS RESEARCH IS TACKLING THE PROBLEM OF DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK FOR OPTIMIZING DESIGN BY INCORPORATING INTO THE PROCEDURE THE MATHEMATICAL SIMULATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF SHIP DYNAMICS IN REAL TIME. THE ILL-POSED PROBLEM IS BEING FORMULATED USING MULTIPLE PHYSICAL CONSTRAINTS/OBJECTIVES, AND SOLVED VIA PARETO-OPTIMIZATION. EFFICIENT COMPUTER PROGRAMS IMPLEMENTING THIS THEORY AND ALGORITHMS ARE BEING DEVELOPED. RESEARCH IS DEVELOPING AN INEXPENSIVE PROTOTYPE SHIP MANEUVERING SIMULATOR, BASED ON SIMPLE PC ARCHITECTURES. THE DEVELOPED TOOLS WILL BE USED TO DEVELOP PROCEDURES FOR OPTIMAL SHIP SYSTEM DESIGN AND IN ASSISTING SHIPBOARD DECISIONMAKING.