IoT for Defense and National Security

7Digital Twins for Warship Systems: Technologies, Applications and Challenges

Sara Ferreno‐Gonzalez, Alicia Munin‐Doce, Marcos Míguez González, Lucía Santiago Caamaño, and Vicente Diaz‐Casas

Grupo Integrado de IngenierÍa, CITENI, Campus Industrial de Ferrol, Universidade da Coruña, Ferrol, Spain

Abstract

Thanks to the development of new technologies such as the Internet of things, it is possible to consider an in‐depth knowledge of the operation of a ship, through its replication in the digital world, both hull, systems and equipment on board. It is a technological challenge due to the complexity of warships. It is necessary to define architectures (storage in the cloud), type of deployment (up to what extend the ship should be sensorized), use or not of open‐source platforms, scalability, etc. The physical part connected to the virtual part, with the first sending real data to the second part, allows reliable predictions of the behavior of equipment and systems on board. The digital twin seeks to virtually reproduce the functions of the ship systems, as well as all the conditions involved in the ship's mission (route to follow, maintenance times, modes of navigation and sea conditions).

7.1 Introduction

The development of IoT technologies, and with it the ability to have connected products and devices have made possible the birth of digital twin concept. The combination of IoT, simulation and data analytics will allow the development of fully functional digital twins.