GenYacht: An interactive generative design system for computer-aided yacht hull design

Abstract

In the present work, a new digital design system, GenYacht, is proposed for the creation of optimal and user-centred yacht hull forms. GenYacht is a hybrid system involving generative and interactive design approaches, which enables users to create a variety of design alternatives. Among them, a user can select a hull design with desirable characteristics based on its appearance and hydrostatics/hydrodynamic performance. GenYacht first explores a given design space using a generative design technique (GDT), which creates uniformly distributed designs satisfying the given design constraints. These designs are then presented to a user and single or multiple designs are selected based on the user's requirements. Afterwards, based on the selections, the design space is refined using a novel space-shrinking technique (SST). In each interaction, SST shrinks the design space, which is then fed into GDT to create new designs in the shrank space for the next interaction. This shrinkage of design space guides the exploration process and focuses the computational efforts on user-preferred regions. The interactive and generative design steps are repeated until the user reaches a satisfactory design(s). The efficiency of GenYacht is demonstrated via experimental and user studies and its performance is compared with interactive genetic algorithms.

Progress and Challenges in Generative Product Design: A Review of Systems

“…This is another example of the kind of blending of design phases favored by Autodesk. The same combination of aesthetics and engineering is found in Khan et al's GenYacht system [61] which aimed to aid novice yacht hull designers in exploring multiple options based on appearance and hydrostatic performance. Like Alcaide-Marzal et al [2], Khan intentionally chose to make the generative system interactive instead of automatic but was able to generate options quickly enough for practical use.…”

Parametric Hull Design with Rational Bézier Curves

“…As far as the maritime field, it is interesting to notice that the design approach is mostly based on the traditional design techniques of trial-and-error. Consequently, the obtained results are highly dependent on the experience of the designer [2,3]. To facilitate the design of hulls, naval engineers are investigating the possibility to define the so-called Hull Equation [4].…”

“…In [7] cubic Bézier curves and the curve-plane intersection method are selected to properly design a submarine hull. Also [8] and [2] propose a new design framework to generate the parametric design and modification of yacht hulls. In particular, the hull is split into three regions to assure better design flexibility.…”

“…Splitting the whole hull domain into sub-domains is a common practice as can be observed in [9] where the hull has two domains, one below the chine and one above the chine. Other authors were more focused on the optimization phase as in [10] where a novel simultaneous engineering design approach has been proposed or in [2] where an interactive design approach for hull forms optimization is developed. In this work, a numerical tool able to help the yacht designer to properly define and modify the hull form of a sailboat has been written.…”

Generative Design of a Mechanical Pedal

“…Generative design is becoming widely implemented in all engineering aspects, GD involves both topology optimization and evolutionary scheme, it also simplified the trade-off among the engineering components costs, weights, and performance, the concept was introduced and being utilized in the aviation industry for the purpose of reducing the aircraft weights, enhance their performance, and to reduce the consumption of fuel [10]. Khan et al implemented the concept of GD in generating several yacht hull using GenYacht system which includes a generative design method, the hull is designed according to certain criteria such performance and appearance [11]. As advancements are being made in the field of machine learning, the machine learning techniques are being implemented in designing optimized automotive parts by incorporating the all technical characteristics of the machines.…”