Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence, a global leader in digital reality solutions combining sensors, software, and autonomous technologies, has created a digital representation of large vessels and marine environments that are difficult to verify in the physical world.

Hexagon announced on the 6th that it supported the research team of Professor Ji-Hyeok Park of Yeungnam University, with financial support from the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, by using its dynamic simulation solution, Adams, for the 'Research on the design and structural optimization of an automatic mooring device for a 6,000-ton autonomous ship'.

Through Adams, the research team was able to significantly save time and resources in identifying mooring conditions and status by implementing conditions similar to various marine environments in software and verifying and optimizing hardware design.

Professor Park Ji-hyeok's research team at Yeungnam University designed an efficient vacuum suction pad-type automatic mooring device and derived the mooring force that the mooring device should apply.

In a maritime environment with many variables, if digital simulation is not used to derive mooring force and design hardware by realistically implementing the movement of a ship, it takes a lot of resources and time.

However, this study leverages Adams’ extensive analytical capabilities and high-performance computing (HPC) environment to create a digital model without having to actually build a large model and wait for climate conditions.The optimal results were derived by reflecting various condition values required to verify the performance of the automatic mooring device of a 6,000-ton medium-sized autonomous ship through simulation using fur.

As the center of research, 'ADAMS' supports system-level design verification, reduces product development costs by securing engineering efficiency, and supports product design that implements optimal performance by evaluating and managing complex interactions among various fields including motion, structure, operation, and control.

Park Ji-hyeok, a professor at Yeungnam University, said, “In order to design hardware, it is important to understand the mooring conditions. To study the mooring conditions, we used Adams, a dynamic analysis program from Hexagon.” He continued, “Based on the mooring force derived through Adams, we designed a suitable mechanism and performed an optimal design for the cross-sectional area of the link, which is the main structure.”

“Just as the automobile industry has been actively researching and investing in autonomous driving over the past few years, we expect the development and demonstration of autonomous driving technology in the shipbuilding sector to become more active,” said Sung Brian, President of Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence Korea. “To enable Korean companies to continue to develop leading technologies in the shipbuilding industry, Hexagon will actively support the application of digital innovation from R&D to production and aftercare, such as implementing digital reality through software and applying generative AI to engineering design.”