On October 14, Nippon Yusen announced that a project titled "Construction of an Integrated Simulation Platform for a Sustainable and Competitive Maritime Industry," in which its group company MTI serves as the lead organization and 10 other organizations in the maritime industry participate, commenced operations on October 1.
As environmental requirements for ships become more sophisticated and complex, measures are needed to address the declining workforce and expanding demand.
This project has been selected for the Japan Science and Technology Agency's (JST) Economic Security Key Technology Development Program (K Program) and will run for five years until September 2030. The goal is to integrate the results of each research and development item to build a comprehensive simulation platform and demonstrate its effectiveness in actual shipbuilding.
<Configuration of the Integrated Simulation Platform>
The project aims to develop an "integrated simulation platform" as a research and development challenge. This platform will optimize vessel specifications and construction plans by simultaneously considering the construction and operation lifecycle and supply chain during the initial development and design phases, thereby promoting the introduction of virtual engineering into the maritime industry.
Furthermore, regarding weather and oceanographic forecasts that affect the safe operation of ships, the company plans to establish seasonal forecasting technology for 1 to 3 months in advance, including extreme phenomena such as typhoons, and incorporate it into the platform.
The participating organizations in the project (at the start of the project) are MTI, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding, Tsuneishi Shipbuilding, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Japan Marine United, Mitsui E&S, National Institute of Maritime, Port and Aviation Technology, National Maritime Research Institute, Tsuneishi Shipbuilding Akishima Research Institute, Osaka University, and Kyoto University.
