Towards Real Time Simulation of Ship-Ship Interaction

We present recent and preliminary work directed towards the development of a simplified, physics-based model for improved simulation of ship-ship interaction that can be used for both analysis and real-time computing (i.e. with real-time constraints due to visualization). The goal is to implement the model into a large maritime simulator for training of naval officers, in particular tug boat helmsmen. Tug boat simulators are used for training of communication and situation awareness during manoeuvre involved with towing of large vessels. A main objective of the work is to improve and enable more accurate (realistic) and much faster ship-wave and shipship simulations than are currently possible. The coupling of simulation with visualization should improve the visual experience such that it can be perceived as more realistic in training. Today the state-of-art in real-time ship-ship interaction is for efficiency reasons and time-constraints in visualization based on model experiments in towing tanks and precomputed force tables. We anticipate that the fast, and highly parallel, algorithm described by Engsig-Karup et al. [2011] for execution on affordable modern high-throughput Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) can provide the basis for efficient simulations in combination with an accurate free-surface model for ShipShip simulation. Another area of application is the determination of wave disturbances from a ship in a coastal environment, channels and harbours. The model proposed in the following can in a simple and efficient way calculate the wave field from a ship sailing in a finite depth sea, even with variations in the height of sea bed. The generated wave field can be applied as an input to other models that simulate the marine environment on a larger scale.