Keywords: Virtual Prototyping, Virtual Reality Based Simulations, HLA, Ship Design

ABSTRACT

Until now, it has always been difficult to test the behaviour of a ship in a particular working condition before building it or setting up a phisical mock-up; however, building a prototype can be impossible or too expensive in some industrial fields, to the extent that sometimes the cost of the final product is heavily influenced by the phisical mock-ups that have been built to test it. In this paper, the description of how HLA (High Level Architecture) has been used by CETENA and Fincantieri to set up a real time simulations is given; selected applications are reported in order to demonstrate the capabilities of the developed simulation, also in case of interconnection with other simulations.
 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

ALDO ZINI graduated in Electronic Engineering at Genoa University in 1990. Since 1991 he has been working in CETENA dealing with information technologies problems. In particular, he was involved in several projects dealing with I.T. applications in shipbuilding and shipping areas: CAD systems, Neural Networks, Ship Survivability Analysis, Virtual Prototyping, Expert Systems, Database, dynamic WEB sites, technical computational code, graphical interfaces.
He is participating to the NATO NG6 Specialist Team on Simulation Based Design and Virtual Prototyping and to the NIAG Sub Group 60 on SBD & VP.
He was involved as scientific responsible in several European research Projects, among which HYDROSES and MATSTRUTSES. His present position is Head of the Information Technology Department of CETENA.

ANDREA LOMMI received the Laurea Degree in Telecommunications Engineering in 2001 from the University of Genova, discussing a Degree Thesis entitled "Sidelobe Reduction in Sparse Linear Arrays by Genetic Algorithms".
Currently, he works for CETENA S.p.A., Information Technologies Department, where he applies Virtual Prototyping and stochastic optimizers to ship design, optimization and performance assessment.
His main research interests are Virtual Prototyping, Virtual Reality based Simulations, Adaptive Antenna Arrays, Antenna Arrays Synthesis and Genetic Algorithms.

RICCARDO NECRISI graduated in Electrical Engineering in 1999 at University of Genova discussing a Degree Thesis "Electromechanical simulator of Hybrid Vehicle". He has been working for CETENA since September 2000 in the Information Technology Department. He is now involved in carrying out virtual prototyping and in researching technologies for vrtual reality application.

DAVIDE TOZZI was born in 1977 and graduated in Electronic Engineering in 2001 at the University of Genova, discussing a Degree Thesis entitled "Design and Realization of an intelligent system for ship motion prediction for Landing Period Designator" (D. Sterpi, D. Tozzi). At present he works for CETENA S.p.A., Information Technology Department, where he is working on the application of Virtual Prototyping in ship design and Virtual Reality based Simulations.

MARCO RAFFA graduated in Naval and Mechanical Engineering in 1979, he started working with FEM software for structural analysis and verification in FINCANTIERI. In 1985 he was responsible for the study and implementation of the graphical system for functional and detailed design based on commercial software with particular focus on the realization of a complete 3D ship model. From 1990 to 1994 he has been responsible of the hull building yard. This experience has been used from 1994 to 1998 in the hull design and manufacturing for the new fast ferries.
From 1998 he is responsible for the management and development of technical information systems in FINCANTIERI DMM and he's nowadays directly involved into the evaluation of cost/benefits deriving from the use of Virtual Prototyping techniques in the ship design process.

ROBERTO COSTA qualified as a Naval Technician is working presently in Fincantieri -Cantieri Navali Italiani S.p.A as member of CAD Office in the Military Ships Division. He's involved in the support for software and information technologies architectural problems concerning the Project Management Area. Nowadays he's working on Virtual Prototyping development and testing for internal and Italian Navy's projects.