What the Shipbuilding Future Holds in Terms of CAD/CAM/CIM Systems

Abstract

We are living a continuous and fast technology evolution, maybe this evolution goes faster than our capacity to assimilate what we can do with it, but the potential is clear and the future will be for those who identifies the right technology with the right application. In the information era, we are literally swimming in an ocean of structured and not structured data and thanks to the evolution in the Telecommunications technologies, all that information can be used from everywhere. However, information means nothing without the capability to analyze, extract conclusions and learn from it, which is way the technologies like treatment of Big Data and the Artificial Intelligence are crucial. Imagine how these technologies shall allow engaging the design of a part or any concept by applying rules, which will facilitate the design significantly, how the integration of the validation of the structural models by the Classification Societies will be linked directly by cloud applications. Imagine all the benefits of this two simple examples that can be implemented thanks to the potential of these technologies. The way we work with shipbuilding CAD tools is also changing thanks to the ubiquitous access to the information and the different hardware available to explode that information: AR, VR, MR, Smartphones, tablets, etc. Nevertheless, not only the way we work, but also the way we interact with shipbuilding CAD tools is changing, with technologies like natural language processes that allows having a direct conversation with the applications. The concepts that are absolutely clear from now to the future in shipbuilding is the use of Data Centric model and the concept of Digital Twin, a real and effective synchronization between what we design, what we construct, by covering the complete life cycle of the product thanks to technologies like IoT and RFID. This paper tries to explain the importance to understand how the new generations of naval architects and marine engineers are immersed in a technological world in constant and rapid evolution. The way they interacts with this ecosystem will determine the way we should define the new rules of the shipbuilding CAD systems.