Origin
The UDC-Navantia Joint Research Center (CEMI) "The Shipyard of the Future" was born on July 12th, 2022, at which time the Galician Innovation Agency (GAIN) of the Xunta de Galicia granted funding for its creation (grant reference: IN853C 2022/01). Such a concession is linked to a GAIN's competitive call resolution of December 31st, 2021.
The CEMI is a continuation of two previous stages: a first linked to the creation of the UDC-Navantia Mixed Research Unit (UMI) (2015-2018) and a second linked to its Consolidation (2018-2021). The actions carried out under these two stages arose from Navantia's concern to start a deep transformation process aimed at the company's sustainability in the 21st century market. The University of A Coruña (UDC) contributed to support the technological innovation necessary for this transformation. The experience accumulated by the UMI made it possible to identify new needs for technological developments and to intensify the collaboration between Navantia and the UDC.
Objectives
The CEMI UDC-Navantia is considered as a continuation of the work started in 2015 and consolidated in 2018, and maintains the following basic objectives:
- The digital transformation of the shipyard.
- The optimization of all the production processes.
- The planning and development of the new Block Factory in which to apply the previously mentioned improvements.
- The introduction and use of enabling and disruptive technologies.
- The implementation of the digital twins of plant and product.
Specifically, the purpose of the CEMI is the development of new techniques and technologies that allow for increasing the competitiveness of the shipyard for the development of the F-110 Program and the new Block Factory of the Navantia-Ferrol shipyard. The essential lines of action are: the digitalization of the processes, the improvement of existing production processes and the development of new ones, and the development of digital twins to improve productivity and to reduce time and costs throughout the value chain. .This is a fundamental pillar to optimize the public resources invested in the F-110 Program and thus compete with the most advanced shipyards in the world in the construction of military ships and other types of platforms.
The foregoing is part of the fundamental objective pursued: the transformation of the Navantia-Ferrol shipyard into a Shipyard 5.0. At the same time, the proposed actions will allow Navantia to improve its competitiveness, as well as the benefits of its products, increasing their added value and differentiating itself from its global competitors. Specifically, the CEMI will focus on specific R&D&i aspects related to the production process, such as:
- The definition of the shipyard as a Cyber-Physical System in which everything that is created and everything that exists within it contains two components: the physical or material, and the cybernetic or virtual, which coexist forming the virtual and real domains, deriving into the creation and implementation of the Digital Twin concept, which will be applied to products, to the plant, to the processes and to the people.
- To apply new digital technologies. The CEMI will continue to promote the key technologies identified (e.g., Virtual/Augmented/Mixed Reality, Internet of Things, modeling and simulation of discrete processes...), knowing that a number of them will vary along the path towards building a Shipyard 5.0.
- To develop intelligent products and also services, providing intelligent sustainability.
- To implement the digital twin as a trustworthy high-resolution digital replica of real entities in its broadest meaning (functional, nature, status, integrity or health, degradation, etc.) over time.
Structure
The CEMI structures its organization as follows:
- Steering Committee:
- Composed of six members that belong at a proportional ratio to UDC and Navantia.
- The Steering Committee is presided by Navantia, with a secretary of the UDC.
- The Committee is in charge of defining the research lines, establishing the R+D+i strategies and evaluating the degree of compliance with both.
- Currently, the Management Committee is made up of the following people:
- Navantia:
- Chair: Eduardo Dobarro Rubido
- Director: Rafael Morgade Abeal
- Carlos Blanco Seijo
- UDC:
- Salvador Naya Fernandez
- Secretary: Pablo Fariñas Alvariño
- Tiago Manuel Fernández Caramés
- Navantia:
- Lines of research and/or action:
- The lines belong to the areas mentioned in the "Objectives" section. Three major lines of research are developed, which are structured into 11 lines of action:
- Product Digital Twin:
- 1. Digital Twin of Ship Stability
- 2. Fire and Smoke Spread Digital Twin
- 3. Digital Twin of Failure Stability
- 4. Ship Evacuation Digital Twin
- 5. SSI Power System Digital Twin
- 6. Impact Test Digital Twin
- Product Digital Twin:
- 7. Digital Twin of the Process or Plant
- New processes:
- 8. Traceability
- 9. Digital Worker
- 10. Inspection and Quality Control
- 11. Robotization
- The lines belong to the areas mentioned in the "Objectives" section. Three major lines of research are developed, which are structured into 11 lines of action:
At least two managers are in charge of each of these lines of action: one designated by UDC and another designated by Navantia, with redundancy of managers in most of the lines. These managers will be in charge of directing and managing each of the aforementioned lines of action.