ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN

SHIPBUILDING INDUSTRY

DIRECTORATE OF NAVAL DESIGN

(SURFACE SHIP GROUP)

PROJECT 28

SUBMITTED BY

LT JIPIN KUMAR KV
INTRODUCTION

1. Artificial Intelligence is one of the most enabling technologies of digital

transformation in the industry, but it is also one of the technologies that most rapidly
spreads in our daily activity. Increasingly, elements and devices that integrate artificial
intelligence features appear in our everyday lives. There are many aspects in which
Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) can be applied in ship design and ship production. The
management and access to all the information necessary for the correct and efficient
execution of a ship project is one of the aspects where A.I. can have a strong impact.
The various aspects of this include:-

(a) Access all the rules, design guides, best practices, lessons learned, etc.,
in a fast and intelligent way,

(b) Understanding the natural language of the people,

(c) Identifying the most appropriate approach to a process carried out, and
above all,

(d) Learning as we go through the design.

2. Learning as we go through the design is one of the characteristics that will

increase the application of this technology in the professional field. Exploring A.I.
approaches in design problems has grown a lot of interest in the past few years.
Enormous potential impact on productivity of improved design tools has aided this new
interest. Especially, the recent development shows application of A.I. to the
hydrodynamic design of the hulls. The problem is to design the shape of the hull in
response to desired hydrodynamic properties such as resistance and stability, taking
into design constraints such as total hull volume, displacement etc..

3. All over the world, major shipbuilding industries have been keen in improvising
systems to nurture and innovate and find solutions for many issues in the production
process. Further, A.I. has emerged as one of the prime technologies that have practical
use cases which organisations are adapting in their organisational work routine. In the
global shipbuilding industry, A.I. and automation play a significant role and businesses
are having great success with A.I. blending well with machine-human interaction and
logistics collaboration.
BASIC CONCEPT

4. There is no single origin of the concept known as A.I. It can be said that A.I. is
the search to imitate human intelligence. Since the beginning of the 21 st century the
advance of A.I. has been unstoppable, driven by the hardware improvements that make
it possible to handle huge amounts of data in increasingly shorter times, as well as the
efficient use of neural networks and the full connectivity of devices through high-speed
internet. What previously required a lot of time, is now almost immediate.

Figure 1: Stages of Computing

5. A.I. is defined in some documents as building a machine that behaves in such a

way that if the same behavior were carried out by a human being, it would be called
intelligent. There are four other definitions that are not based on human behaviour such
as:-

(a) Act like people. Here, the model to follow for the evaluation of programs
corresponds to human behaviour.

(b) Reason like people. The proposal here is to develop systems that
reason in the same way as people.

(c) Reason rationally. Logic allows the formalization of reasoning and is

used for this purpose.
 (d) Act rationally. To achieve this goal, the way to calculate the result is
indifferent.

6. Focusing exclusively on A.I., while disregarding the Big Data and analytical
techniques, three fundamental elements can be detected:-

(a) Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). A.I. covers everything that allows computers
to behave like humans. The techniques included are among others: automatic
learning, natural language comprehension, NPL, language synthesis, computer
image recognition, robotics, signaling and results analysis, optimization and
simulation, etc.

(b) Machine Learning (M.L.). M.L. is the subset of A.I. which deals with the
extraction of patterns from data sets. In this subset we will find: Deep learning,
support vector machines, decision trees, learning Bayes, clustering k- means,
learning of association rules, regression algorithms, etc.

(c) Deep Learning (D.L.). D.L. is a specific class of M.L. algorithms that use
complex neural networks. In a sense, it is a group of related techniques
comparable to a group of ‘decision trees’ or ‘support vector machines’. They are
the engine of the applications that use them and thanks to advances in parallel
computing they have become accessible to common use. Its components
include: artificial neural networks, convolution neural networks, recursive neural
networks, long, short term memory networks deepest beliefs and many more.

A.I. APPLICATION IN MARINE INDUSTRY

7. The digitalization of industrial processes, robotisation, improvements in the

collection of data and its analysis that allow improving decisions and reducing risks, etc.
helps tremendously in the shipbuilding industry. But these are some of the indirect
applications of A.I. in naval industry. The phases of the life cycle of a product, which are
some of the direct areas of application of A.I., are as following:-

(a) Specification. During the specification or definition phase, A.I. tools

linked to the Big Data and analytics allow us to better define what the client
wants, help predict the behavior of the market and build a strong business case.

(b) Design. Unlike circuit or program designs, hull design involves designing
a shape rather than a structure of discrete primitives. Further, the domain theory
for designing based on relationships between candidates design and their
 physical (hydrodynamic) properties is extremely complex. Hence, appropriate
simplifications and approximations with A.I. is essential to make computations
traceable. If A.I. helps to make a design well, it will provide a time saving and
probably reduce the number of errors.

(c) Operation. The great leap of A.I. in the industry has been given by
concepts such as Internet of Things (IoT) and the momentum of Industry 4.0 to
improve the operation of products. There is a need to incorporate the products,
sensors and connectivity with platforms that collect a multitude of data to draw
conclusions about their function, improve and extend their operational life.

(d) Withdrawal. This is one phase that is lacking currently in A.I. applications
and it is considered in near future that various aspects of A.I. may play a major
role in this phase too.

8. In terms of development and production, there are innumerable existing possible

applications. It is precisely in this area where the implementation of work methodologies
that use A.I. to obtain improvements in the productive process has advanced the most.
There are repetitive tasks or requiring a certain programmable logic that can be
automated through the use of A.I. applications. Industrial production can improve from
the collection of performance data, analysis of results and the use of applications that
use A.I. algorithms to detect inefficiencies in the production chain.

9. The naval industry depends on other industries for most of the machineries and
other items. The marine industry has focused on immediate results, it is looking very
quickly for a solution and does not store data and results in a systematic way that allows
it to be used again in similar scenarios. The development of powerful algorithms
requires that they can be applied in similar conditions with some recurrence. The data
must be correctly structured and reasonably clean so that they can be used with
advantage. But still, it is difficult to find a systematic use of the data as only a limited
series of ships have the same characteristics. However, it is possible to find a recurrent
pattern in the characteristics of the steel parts of the ship. So A.I. systems can assess if
they are correctly defined.

10. Traditionally, the shipbuilding industry has relied on the labour of a large pool of
skilled workers, who faced the prospect of long hours and demanding tasks such as
welding, cutting and painting to get large vessels launched. As labour pools continue to
dry up and shipyards struggle for efficiency gains in an intensely competitive global
market, shipbuilders are increasingly relying on greater levels of automation to keep up
with their order books. Autonomous navigating robot equipped with the 3D camera
sensor and SoC [System-on-Chip] technology which itself identifies where to link and
welds automatically is one of the many examples of usage of A.I./ automation.

A.I. APPLICATION IN MARINE DESIGN

11. For A.I. application in naval design, the primary objective was to clarify the
relationships between the hydrodynamic design problems of ships and the areas of A.I.
research related to the design and analysis of complex systems. The research mostly
lead to progress in computational fluid mechanics analysis tools CFD and integrate
them into the design processes and effective control of design processes, focusing on
concurrent design and including approaches to explore feasible design space
configurations and systematically recording and storing results. Further, A.I. can be
utilised for optimizing the designs using A.I. algorithms that analyze the design space of
certain vessels in which it has been made a systematic parameterization of the
variables that allow to define different design alternatives.

12. Currently, designs are made with computer tools either Computer Aided Design
(CAD) or office automation or management, such as Product Life Cycle Management
(PLM), and Documentaries, (PDM), etc. It is necessary to look for in these tools the
possible applications of A.I. There are researches that seek to facilitate the design of
hundreds of alternatives that meet the specifications of the designer. Development of
generative design system that allows designers to develop a definition of their design
problem through objectives and limitations are also in progress. This information is used
to synthesize alternative design solutions that meet the objectives. Designers can
explore the tradeoffs between many alternative approaches and select design solutions
for manufacturing. A.I. also has the field of application to make a good design and this
passes by being be able to parameterize the designs, collect usage and performance
data and evaluate them.

THE FUTURE OF A.I. IN MARINE INDUSTRY

13. The exploitation of the marine business has an undeniable field of growth for A.I.
There are many computer solutions that, based on the operating data of the different
ship systems, can help manage assets in a more optimal way. The application of IoT to
ships provides both data collection and the ability to act on assets to obtain their best
performance. In the first place, we must have comprehensive solutions that cover all
aspects of connectivity and integrate them in a coherent manner. It is necessary to have
the signalling, connectivity and appropriate representation model based to provide
interactivity with the end users.
14. Another interesting field of work for the future of A.I. is image recognition. In this
sense and placing the focus on the marine industry, two fields of application appear.
The identification of images in autonomous vehicles that can help the mission and the
operation of them. Although it does not only have application in ships and unmanned
devices, it can also be used in surveillance systems and detection of possible threats or
risks in manned ships.

15. The recognition of images through A.I. is also of interest in design stages. The
need to have virtual models of the objects that are part of a project makes real models
can be scanned and then try to be recognized to create the virtual model. This is of
particular interest in ship revamping and retrofit. The need to have a virtual model from
a real one in order to evaluate the possibilities of retrofitting, including the processes
and manoeuvres necessary to carry out such operations. An extension of this can be
applied to the component models that are used in the design stages by the CAD
applications. Currently, it is increasingly common for components to be modelled in
CAD that are obtained through external files that for the most part have been obtained
for marketing purposes. These formats are superficial representations of many faces
that do not have a geometric and parametric representation. This limitation opens a field
of action to A.I. programs that are able to recognize that certain faces form a
determined surface, and in turn that certain surfaces form a certain solid. By the
moment the available programs help the user, but it is finally the user who validates the
conversion. However, A.I. programs can go on igniting this type of recognition that
makes a human being to be more decisive each time.

16. The realization of a naval project is something certainly complex, and not only by
the transversality of it but also by the number of tools that must be handled and the
limitations imposed by design rules or standards of various kinds: construction, security,
etc. CAD systems provide more and more tools, but they are also increasingly complex
to be used optimally.

17. The novelty of A.I., will be that these machines and robots will not have to be
programmed, but they will receive the data or the objects with which they have to work
and they will know how to act. “In the future, robots will no longer have to be
expensively programmed in a time-consuming way with code pages that provide them
with a fixed procedure for assembling parts, we just have to specify the task and the
system will automatically translate these specifications into a program,” Wurm (2017).

CONCLUSIONS
18. A.I. is one of the enabling technologies of digital transformation that has the
greatest potential among those that make up the fourth industrial revolution. Knowing
their characteristics and possibilities is essential to decide their application to certain
processes and products, especially industrial ones and very particularly those related to
the marine sector. It is important to identify the value that A.I. can contribute to the use
cases where it can be applied.

19. A.I. automates the learning of repetitive tasks and the discovery of relationships
through data. It is necessary to populate accurate and reliable data to A.I. systems as
well as to provide sufficient information that is well structured and correctly tagged. The
A.I. highlights the importance of the data. It is necessary that those who use A.I. know
how to make themselves understood and ask the right questions. The A.I. must be
correctly fed, with questions and answers. An A.I. system is as intelligent as the
individuals who prepare it.