Physically based modeling and simulation of a ship in open water 3-D virtual environment

Abstract

This thesis addresses the development of a physically based modeling simulator for a ship in a 3-D virtual environment to be used in naval tactical training systems. The objective is to develop a computer simulation program in which physical models are implemented in order to achieve a realistic representation of a ship in a virtual environment considering its physical features in the presence of environment conditions including waves, ocean current, wind, fog and day/night issues. The simulator was developed by integrating five marine models with a virtual ocean environment created with a visual simulation builder tool. The marine models include a maneuvering model, a wave model, a wind model and an ocean current model. The numerical results from another complex wave model were also combined using linear interpolation to increase the realism level of the simulator. The result of this thesis shows that the integration of multiple models from different sources is a feasible approach to meet the application requirements. The result also indicates that the use of the interpolation technique to take advantage of complex models yields a simulator with acceptable level of realism while imposing very low computational load in the application program.