Current State of the Vessel.JS Library: A Web-Based Toolbox for Maritime Simulations

Abstract

This paper presents the current state of the open and collaborative Vessel.JS library, firstly introduced at the 2018 edition of IMDC. The new features of the library are discussed via available online examples. The core of the paper uses a newly developed web-based online ship simulator as guiding example, where the ship, sea and environment are constructed using the library and its dependencies. Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) research vessel Gunnerus is used as example for the ship and maneuverability model. The landscape is based on an open map from Trondheim municipality, joint by the library with the sea and sky. The bridge and control center uses the OpenBridge library for the instruments, a result from a recent cooperation between NTNU and Oslo School of Architecture (Oslo, Norway). The whole platform is available online and can be modified and improved by peers. A discussion is included in the last part of the paper about how recent studies in digital twin standards can be implemented in the mentioned example using web technologies. The paper concludes with a proposal for re-use of the available model and a call to open and collaborative development in maritime design.