Comparison of system modelling techniques for autonomous ship systems

Abstract

As autonomous ships are currently developed, modern technologies are implemented into ship systems for enabling autonomous operations. Tight coupling in safety-critical systems created new challenges for the engineers and operators. Designing, operating and analyzing these complex systems requires a deep understanding about the system composition, requirements and expected behavior or functionality. The increasing complexity of the systems requires the implementation of modern model-based approaches. Instead of large texts, these new modelling techniques aim to present detailed system information with simplified models. This paper compares system modelling techniques known as System Modelling Language (SysML) and Object Process Methodology (OPM). These methods are used to model a Dynamic Positioning system (DP-system). Results show that the SysML is more suitable than OPM for modelling the autonomous ship systems due to its ability to present detailed system information in a simple and coherent way.