DRDC Atlantic Developing Virtual Naval Platform for Advanced Simulation Applications

28 January 2004

DRDC Atlantic has longstanding expertise in assessment of naval platforms and associated systems while at sea. This expertise is now being applied to simulation of ship systems for a variety of applications. Simulation has been an important component of military training for many years. Advances in computational speed and fidelity have now made simulation practical for applications in other areas such as hardware acquisition and mission planning and rehearsal. The High Level Architecture is being utilized to enable distributed simulation and interoperability among simulation components.

A simulation of ship replenishment-at-sea (RAS) is being developed using DRDC Atlantic software components. RAS is a complex operation requiring successful interaction among ship systems and crew. Simulation has the potential to provide valuable information regarding various aspects of RAS, including optimal placement of replenishment systems onboard ship, assessment of ship motion effects on crew performance and design of systems for controlling ship positioning.

In the long term, DRDC Atlantic plans to integrate many of its existing models of naval platforms into a comprehensive simulation framework. Envisioned applications will encompass models of human performance, naval platform motions, weapons loading, and structural response. An example of a resulting complex application would be assessment of ship safety against capsize and structural collapse after sustaining significant damage from a grounding, collision, or weapons.