A Six Degrees of Freedom Ship Simulation System for Maritime Education

Abstract

Abstract-This paper presents Six-degrees-of-freedom ship simulation system which allows simulated ship handling under complicated environmental conditions and threat scenarios. This system simulates real-time six degrees of freedom ship motions (pitch, heave, roll, surge, sway, and yaw) under user interactions, and environmental conditions. The simulation system consists of a ship motion prediction system and a perception enhanced immersive virtual environment with greater ecological validity. This ship motion prediction system uses a few model parameters which can be evaluated by using standard ship maneuvering test or determined easily from databases such as Lloyd's register. This virtual environment supports multiple-display viewing that can greatly enhance user perception. Ecological environment for strong sensation of immersion is also developed. The virtual environment facilitates the incorporation of real world ships, geographical sceneries, different environmental conditions and wide range of visibility and illumination effects. This simulation system can be used to demonstrate ship motions, maneuvering tactics and assign focused missions to trainees and evaluate their performance. Trainees can use the simulation system to study at their own pace. Implementation and operational cost of this ship simulation system is only a fraction of the conventional training involving real ships.

Review of maritime traffic models from vessel behavior modeling perspective

“…The vessel motion can be described in six degrees of freedom considering hydrodynamic forces, including surge, sway, heave, roll, pitch, and yaw (Sandurawan et al, 2012). However, from the viewpoint of other vessels or the traffic manager, the detailed motion cannot be observed.…”

A dynamic ocean wave simulator based on six-degrees of freedom parallel platform

“…The controller will then control the platform to motion in accordance with the inputted model, so as to form the testing the ocean wave conditions. Relevant studies include the platform for controlling wave layer motions designed by Liu Lichuan from Daliann Maritime University, 3 the 3-DOF ocean wave simulation platform designed by Yang Zhiyou from Northeastern University, 4 the 6-DOF ocean wave simulation platforms, respectively, designed by Damitha Sandaruwan 5 and Shyh-Kuang Ueng et al. 6 according to their own wave theories, and the ship simulator by Maritime University of Szczecin.…”

Development of the Object-Oriented Dynamic Simulation Models Using Visual C++ Freeware

“…The dynamical systems evolving with the flow of time are described by sets of differential equations, ordinary or partial ones. Such systems are the main part of diverse modelling applications belonging to different scientific and engineering domains as high-energy and accelerator physics (see, e.g., Hajari et al [1]), ship navigation (Sandaruwan et al [2]), electric power systems (Yusop et al [3]), mechatronics and robotics (Ferretti et al [4]), aerospace (Kozynchenko [5]), process control (Sivakumaran and Radhakrishnan [6]), and so forth. These applications, being characterized by advanced theoretical level of underlying mathematical models, can be multidomain and have rather complex structures including frequent decision-making and intelligent control units.…”