Design and Manufacturing in a Distributed Computer Environment

The design, analysis and manufacture of complex system, such as ships, automobiles, and aircraft, involves processing on a variety of computers using different programming languages running on different operating systems as well as massive data exchange between different computational processes. The Internet and the emerging distributed computing paradigm provides a unique opportunity for Simulation Based Design (SBD) spanning the entire range of ship design, analysis and actual manufacture. Due to previous investments, there are already large monolithic computer programs that address specific aspects of the above processes. These programs operate in a specific environment and their execution requires specialized expertise. Typically, a complex computational workflow that involves several programs, needs to exchange a considerable amount of data in order to accomplish the overall task. Using latest software technologies, based on Object Oriented Programming (OOP), modern protocols such as the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) or the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), and the acceptance of metadata standards such as the already well developed STandard for the Exchange of Product data (STEP), it is possible to link together these different programs and make them cooperate. With this new architecture, it is possible to provide functionality such as remote execution and control. Furthermore the new architecture leads to a service-style method of design, analysis and manufacture as opposed to the current product-style methodology pervasive in the industry. So far we have experimented on a small scale with this type of architecture for a range of applications in the Ocean Sciences and Ocean Systems Management and have provided an experimental system that linked together previously isolated computational programs.