Technology Surveillance Report

VIRTUAL REALITY EQUIPMENT 1

Technology Surveillance Report Virtual reality equipment in 3D designs, fabrication/assembly methods, worker training,

safety and salvage methods

Technology Surveillance Report

Virtual reality equipment in 3D designs,

fabrication/assembly methods, worker

training, safety and salvage methods

www.auxnavaliaplus.org




Index

Executive Summary .............................................................................................. 3

1. Introduction ................................................................................................... 3

2. Analysis or Patent Documents ................................................................................ 5

2.1. Technological Development .............................................................................. 6

2.2. Research Lines and Emerging Technologies ............................................................. 6

2.3. Most Innovative Technologies ........................................................................... 9

2.4. Geo-strategical Position ................................................................................ 12

2.5. Competitive Landscape ................................................................................. 14

3. Analysis of Scientific Publications .......................................................................... 16

4. Bibiographic References .................................................................................... 18

5. Disclaimer ................................................................................................... 24




Executive Summary

This Technology Surveillance Report has been

conducted by FOUNDATION FOR THE

PROMOTION OF INDUSTRIAL AND

TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT QUALITY OF

GALICIA (FFTG) under the proyect AUXNAVALIA

PLUS to be constantly ahead of published

developments in the field of Virtual reality

equipment in 3D designs, fabrication/assembly

methods, worker training, safety, and salvage

methods for the shipbuilding industry.

The aim of this report is to analyze the state of

the art of development and identify future

trends and applications of the technology in

Europe. With this information we will have to

measure the sector of the technology and make

a preliminary analysis of how the technology has

developed throughout time and its maturity

level, what are the patents having greatest

impact, what are the main research lines and

most original developments and how the

analyzed technological is positioned.

Furthermore, it will be an information tool in

order to promote, disseminate and update the

specific knowledge in the area, bringing to the

auxiliary sector of the Naval Atlantic area the

latest developments about the technology of

interest.

Based on the analysis of the information

gathered, it appears that most of the

developments have been led by Asian

companies, wherein the UNIVERSITY OF DALIAN

highlights both in patent applications and

scientific documents as one of the most active

organizations in the area. It is followed by other

Asian applicants as the company HYUNDAI

HEAVY IND CO LTD, the Korean AGENCY FOR

DEFENSE AND DEVELOPMENT and QINGDAO

PORT GROUP CO. LTD, among others.

China, Republic of Korea and Japan are the

geographical leaders in new developments,

bearing in mind both the perspective of

generation and the market interest.

1. Introduction

Virtual Reality (VR) refers to real-time systems

modeled by computer graphics that allow user

interaction and movements with three or more

degrees of freedom. VR combines many fields as

computers, robotics, graphics, engineering and

cognition. VR worlds are created by computer

graphics techniques as 3D environments, where

one or more users interact with virtual elements.

VR is basically a way of simulating or replicating

an environment and giving the user a sense of

being there, taking control, and personally

interacting with that environment with his/her

own body.

As the technologies of virtual reality evolve, the

applications of VR become literally unlimited. It is

assumed that VR will reshape the interface

between people and information technology by

offering new ways for the communication of

information, the visualisation of processes, and

the creative expression of ideas.

The use of simulation-based design and virtual

reality technologies leads to higher efficiency in

terms of work strategy planning, and offers, as a

result, significant productivity gains. It gives

computer-supported answers to the major

questions: when and where to produce what and




with which resources depending on the

availability and restrictions of resources and

materials.

This is very important in sectors such as

automotive, aerospace and shipbuilding,

especially the latter because the virtual

simulation facilitates both prototyping and real

scenarios reproduction in order to optimize

processes and therefore the risk or fail

minimization.

Most companies develop their own virtual

simulation software, such as FVIEWER which is

the new Virtual Reality and Design Review

module developed by SENER to replace the

predecessor VISUAL 3D and it is fully integrated

in the FORAN1 environment. FVIEWER gives the

user the possibility to review the ship 3D model,

walk through it in real time, interrogate it about

properties and attributes, detect collisions, and

make annotations and measure clearances and

distances.

Some areas of application VR simulation in the

naval industry are:

� Fabrication: Ship construction requires a large

and complex engineering system which

involves the cooperation of the various types

of work within limited space and resources. It

is characterized by high intensity of

technology, capital and labor. Virtual

manufacturing (VM) is an integrated approach

which preliminary simulate the ship

construction process and accurately forecasts

1 Is a CAD / CAM / CAE naval created by SENER for the

design and production of any type of ship and offshore

artifact. It is a multidisciplinary and integrated system that

can be used in all phases of design and production

disciplines ship.

the performance index. Virtual ship assembly

is considered to be one of the most significant

applications in virtual ship manufacturing. It is

a computer-based design process which

coordinates ship components, including solid

modeling, assembly, and checking of

interference. With the application of the

virtual assembly technology, designers can

confirm the validity of the ship assembly

design and operation mode. If there are some

problems in the assembly sequence, and the

assembly process can be visualized for the

engineers and technicians.

� Navigation: Virtual reality (VR) has been

introduced into ship navigation simulation.

Through this method, Marine environment

scene special place can be rebuilt and ship

motion can are described in detail.

The whole Ship Navigation Virtual Reality

System (SNVRS) includes three parts:

1) The environment forecast module used to

forecast the environment factors in the

navigation area. For example, wind, fog,

current, wave and rain can be calculated by

this module.

2) The ship maneuver forecast module used

these environment factors to calculate the

ship movement and motion in this area

based on the maneuver equation.

3) The scene virtual reality module. The final

step is to realize the virtual reality of the

ship navigation. The whole scene, including

environment, ship and wharf building, will

be shown in three-dimension vision in ship

virtual reality module.

� Worker Training: Many companies are

looking at virtual reality to train company

personnel. With virtual reality, companies can




save money and time and also train people in

areas they could not consider before. As

technology has progressed in the past two

decades, researchers have been developing

many ways to immerse a person into the

virtual world.

Bellow some indicators are shown to assess

trends in the area, countries and regions

generators of innovation, as well as major

markets and the leading entities in the area,

speeding up the reading of the patent and

scientific documents.

2. Analysis of Patent Documents

The search was conducted on more than a

hundred of patent databases including United

States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO),

European Patent Office (EPO), World Intellectual

Property Office, Spanish (OEPM), Japanese (JPO),

Chinese and South Korean Patent Offices, to

obtain sets of results relevant to the chosen

subject of study.

The search strategy includes different

methodologies. The main one consists in using

keywords and concepts provided by the

Auxnavalia Plus project partners, and others

learned during the documentation process

before designing the search strategy. In this

search the keywords were directed to focus

Virtual reality equipment in 3D fabrication,

navigation and training purpose.

Besides the keywords, the International Patent

Classification (IPC) has been used2. Specifically,

2 This classification is a hierarchical system where the

technology field is divided into a number of sections,

the class B63 related to ships or other

waterborne vessels and the related equipment

and the subgroup G09B 9/00 related to simulators for teaching or training purposes,

which describes, among others, the technology

of interest.

Finally, a preliminary search were done by using

generics words as virtual reality, virtual

simulation, simulator, 3D design, naval,

maritime, kahn, schiff, bateau, barco,

shipbuilding safety, salvage, etc, and

complementing this search with methods and

technics mentioned previously, generating a

sample of more than 1,000 families of patents

and utility models in last decade.

Next, by using both IPC codes and manual

revision it has been collected a total of 75

families of patents and utility models (137

documents) in the last 10 years (2003-2013).

Regarding scientific literature, about 47

publications in the area of interest were

collected3.

In order to identify the specific weight of the

different applications in the context of the

intellectual property, a preliminary of the

representative sample of the technology analysis

has been made, compairing these technological

solutions.

In this regard, it is important to emphasize that

within the universe recovered approximately

classes, subclasses and subgroups. This system is essential

to retrieve patent documents in the search in a specific

field of technology. The is-burning classification contains

approximately over 74,000 entries. 3 The complete list of the patents families and scientific

publications are compiled in Annexes I and II, respectively

(Excel).




three quarters of the total innovations are

related to Navigation, which includes navigation,

communication and safety4 systems.

On the other hand, 20% of are referred to

training applications, and to military and non-

military personal. Next, 8% of innovations are

related to fabrication, with special attention in

welding processes.

Source: Own generation based on patent databases

Figure 1. Percentage per enforcement

2.1. Technological Development

The initial analysis of the last ten year application

patents data reveals how the technology is

growing and the interest of the market on it. The

Figure 2 shows the innovative level of the

patents by analysing the evolution of the yearly

number of applications patents at a worldwide

level. The chart was made using two variables:

the earliest priority year and number of patents

per year.

As can be seen from the figure, the number of

patent applications per earliest priority year has

increased continuously since 2007. On the other

4 Simulation of combats, attacks and accidents.

hand, it is shown that the publication of new

technologies takes an average of 1 and 2 years.

Looking at the trends in patent application, it is

inferred that a continuous improvement in the

development of new virtual reality equipments

has motivated a new growth stage in the area.


Figure 2. Applications patents per priority year

2.2. Research Lines and Emerging Technologies

Then based on the initial analysis of the

evolution of the technological area, it delves into

the analysis by studying the codes of the

International Patent Classification (IPC).

The procedure consists in analyzing these

classifications in those hierarchical levels of

classification more representative of the whole

patent information gathered through the

quantification of subclasses and the subgroups

with the highest number of occurrences in

quantity, allowing infer the technological field

covering and new potential research or

application areas.




By analyzing the main subclass provides an

overview of trends in R & D and general

applications presented in Table 1. The subclass

that has a higher number of applications is the

G09B concerning appliances for teaching and

communicating.

As a set, this subclass represent more than 70%

of all inventions in the area what ilustrate a

bigger activity in technologies related to

simulators for teaching or training purpose.

It should be noted that the subclasses G06F and

G06T related to computing, and more specifically

to electric digital and image data processing,

represent 21% of documents.

Regarding the activity in last three years, the

subclasses G01R and G01C concerning to

measuring distances, electric and magnetic

variables have been used firstly since 2010,

which could represent emerging research lines.

Table 1. Main subclasses

Subclass Nº Families %Total1 %10-12

2

G09B: Educating; Cryptography; Display; Advertising; Seals -> Educational

Or Demonstration Appliances; Appliances For Teaching, Or Communicating

With, The Blind, Deaf Or Mute; Models; Planetaria; Globes; Maps;

Diagrams

53 71% 40% of 53

G06F: Computing; Calculating; Counting -> Electric Digital Data Processing 10 13% 30% of 10

G05B: Controlling; Regulating -> Control Or Regulating Systems In General;

Functional Elements Of Such Systems; Monitoring Or Testing Arrangements

For Such Systems Or Elements

8 11% 0% of 8

G06T: Computing; Calculating; Counting -> Image Data Processing Or

Generation, In General 6 8% 0% of 6

G08G: Signalling -> Traffic Control Systems 4 5% 25% of 4

G05D: Controlling; Regulating -> Systems For Controlling Or Regulating

Non-Electric Variables 2 3% 0% of 2

B63G: Ships Or Other Waterborne Vessels; Related Equipment -> Offensive

Or Defensive Arrangements On Vessels; Mine-Laying; Mine-Sweeping;

Submarines; Aircraft Carriers

2 3% 50% of 2

B23K: Machine Tools; Metal-Working Not Otherwise Provided For ->

Soldering Or Unsoldering; Welding; Cladding Or Plating By Soldering Or

Welding; Cutting By Applying Heat Locally, E.G. Flame Cutting; Working By

Laser Beam

2 3% 0% of 2

B63B: Ships Or Other Waterborne Vessels; Related Equipment -> Ships Or

Other Waterborne Vessels; Equipment For Shipping 2 3% 0% of 2

H04L: Electric Communication Technique -> Transmission Of Digital

Information, E.G. Telegraphic Communication 2 3% 50% of 2

G01R: Measuring; Testing -> Measuring Electric Variables; Measuring

Magnetic Variables 1 1% 100% of 1

G01C: Measuring; Testing -> Measuring Distances, Levels Or Bearings;

Surveying; Navigation; Gyroscopic Instruments; Photogrammetry Or

Videogrammetry

1 1% 100% of 1

G02B: Optics -> Optical Elements, Systems, Or Apparatus 1 1% 100% of 1 Source: Own generation based on patent databases

1 Each patent can be classified by more than one code; therefore the sum of the percentages could exceed 100%. This was repeated for all

patent classification codes in the number of patents by applicants and priority countries due to co-occurrence. 2

Percentage period 2010-2012.




Similarly, is shown in Figure 3 the relationship

between the main IPC codes used in the

technology under study. Thus, the subclass G09B

“Educational or demonstration appliances;

appliances for teaching, or communicating with,

the blind, deaf or mute; models; planetaria;

globes; maps; diagrams”, collect roughly three

quarters of inventions in the area.

In more detail, it is highlighted the subgroup

level of G09B, wherein the main code is G09B

9/00 related to simulator for teaching or training

purposes and more specifically the subgroup

G09B 9/06 related to Simulators for teaching

control of ships, boats or other waterborne

vehicles.


Figure 3. Relationship between IPC codes




2.3. Most Innovative Technologies

From the previous state of the art, a small

number of those patents are the ones leading

current investigation. By studying the impact of

those documents on later documents and R&D

projects, it can detect those developments

having a higher repercussion, thus facilitating a

comparative study between the Technological

Offer and the most consolidated technological

developments.

The grade of innovation (i) is calculated by

combining the analysis of three different

variables:

- Priority year, showing how novel the patent is;

- How many cites the patent has, measuring how

close is the patent to the general state of the art

and the degree of innovation it represents;

- How many times the patent has been cited,

showing the relevance of the patent.

A ranking has been made where the top patent is

the one that has the bigger positive value of the

defined innovation indicator (i). In general, a 11%

of the innovations has been cited.

Table 2 shows the largest patent innovation

index ("i" greater than zero) relative to the

universe of patents on assembly methods in the

shipbuilding industry, from highest to lowest in

terms of this innovation indicator "i ".

First, it is important to highlight that about a 67%

of the innovations compiled in the table does not

cite previous papers, so that could be regarded

as new researchs which involved a break with

the state of the art existing at the time of those

innovations were published5. Furthermore, the

table shows that 66% of innovations have been

requested by Asian institutions from South

Korea, China and Japan.

First, the patent document applied by AR VISION

INC does not cited any previous document and

has been cited 7 times since its publication on

2004. It regards to a simulator system

comprising: a video recorder installed in a

camera mounted on a vehicle to be simulated, a

motion sensor installed in the camera, a signal

processor for generating control data to drive a

simulator (based on the motion data and the

video/audio data output from the motion sensor

and the video recorder), a simulator controller

for generating simulation and a motion

interpreter for driving the simulator based on

the simulation data.

Next, the most cited Norweian patent

application owned by MARINE CIBERNETICS AS

and published in 2005 describes a testing

method of combined dynamic positioning and

power management system of marine vessel, by

providing simulated forces to simulated vessel

module comprising algorithm for computing

dynamic behavior of simulated vessel.

Other invention with a high innovation grade is

the application CN101430833A owned by

ZHEIJANG UNIVERSITY and published in 2010.

The invention describes a modeling method of

marine water body virtual reality, constructing a

main body of a model in virtue of RS (remote

sensing) data via the convenient and high effect

5 The innovations presented in Table 2 are the most

innovative at the present, notwithstanding that recent

patents with less cites will accumulate more, and in the

following years may result in patents with a higher

innovative indicator.




data processing process and science storing

manner by using the OpenGL technology.

The three-dimensional modeling method for

constructing a three-dimensional marine water

body by adopting the outlines of a sea surface

test area comprises the following steps:

1) Representing the sea surface wave by

carrying out the texture mapping process.

2) Expressing the change situation of the

physical quantity, such as the water

depth and water quality of the RS data

and so on is expressed by 'projecting' the

parallel outlines for constructing the

columnar body of the water body.

3) Reproducing the marine water body and

the seafloor topography in the body

transparent manner.

The invention is the new method for modeling

the three-dimensional marine water body in

virtue of the OpenGL6 as the modeling tool under

the RS and CIS (geographic information system)

technology support.

Other patent application related to simulation

systems applied to rescue works is

CN10430833A, published in 2009 by the

UNIVERSITY OF DALIAN. The invention describes

a maritime search and rescue simulation system

is mainly composed of a coach station, a main

ship, several assistant ships, a rescue helicopter

unit and a video monitoring system, the coach

station is the command and control centre of

maritime search and rescue simulation system

development platform, mainly fulfilling the 6 OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross language,

multi-platform application programming interface (API)

for rendering 2D and 3D computer graphics. It´s widely

used in CAD, virtual reality, scientific visualization,

information visualization, flight simulation, and video

games.

responsibilities of search and rescue

coordination centre and the alarm station, and

undertaking the function of managing and

controlling the whole maritime search and

rescue simulation development platform; the

main ship simulates the distress ship or search

and rescue ships, and under searching and

rescuing the command and coordination of

coach station; the assistant ship is set as distress

ship or search and rescue ships according to the

requirement of search and rescue exercises, and

equipped with the viewing field corner post

curtain stereoprojection vision system of 180

degrees; the rescue helicopter unit simulates the

maritime search and rescue helicopter, and

under the command and coordination of coach

station, and in coordination of the main ship or

assistant ship to search and rescue; the video

monitoring system mainly achieves the function

of visual transmission of video information on

the search and rescue site. The beneficial effect

of the invention is providing the platform

support for developing the maritime search and

rescue simulation system.




Table 2. Patents with higher innovation grade

Publication Number Title Applicant Publication Year Priority

Country

Count of

Cited Refs

Count of

Citing “i”

US20040054512A1 METHOD FOR MAKING SIMULATOR PROGRAM AND

SIMULATOR SYSTEM USING THE METHOD AR VISION INC 2004 KR 0 7 0,7

WO2005121915A1 METHOD FOR TESTING OF A COMBINED DYNAMIC

POSITIONING AND POWER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM MARINE CYBERNETICS AS 2005 NO 2 6 0,5

US20080189092A1 SIMULATION DEVICE AND SIMULATION METHOD SAAB AB 2008 EP 1 4 0,5

KR2009105329A METHOD OF PROTOCOL CONVERSION FOR SHIP

MANEUVERING SIMULATOR

HYUNDAI HEAVY IND CO

LTD 2009 KR 0 2 0,4

JP2004294686A NAVIGATION SIMULATOR SYSTEM MITSUI ENG &

SHIPBUILDING CO LTD 2004 JP 0 3 0,3

RU2251157C2 MARINE INTELLECTUAL SIMULATOR MATLAKH A P | NECHAEV

YU I | POLYAKOV V I 2005 RU 0 3 0,3

CN101650837A VIRTUAL-REALITY MODELING METHOD OF OCEAN

WATER BODY UNIV ZHEJIANG 2010 CN 0 1 0,2

JP2005141433A THREE-DIMENSIONAL VIRTUAL REALITY SIMULATOR MITSUBISHI JUKO KANKYO

ENG KK 2005 JP 0 2 0,2

CN101430833A MARITIME SEARCH AND RESCUE SIMULATION

SYSTEM AND ITS DEVELOPMENT PLATFORM

UNIV DALIAN

OCEANOGRAPHY 2009 CN 0 1 0,2

CN1529294A SHIP MOTION SIMULATOR CONTROL SYSTEM UNIV SHANGHAI JIAOTONG 2004 CN 0 2 0,2

DE102007026502A1 SHIP PERSONAL TRAINING SYSTEM FOR E.G. SHIP

AUTOMATION SYSTEM SIEMENS AG 2008 DE 1 2 0,1

CN101000721A HIGH QUALITY MARINE SIMULATOR AND ITS

DEVELOPING PLATFORM SYSTEM UNIV DALIAN 2007 CN 1 2 0,1





2.4. Geo-strategical Position

The analysis of the geographical extension of

patents belonging to a specific technical area

allows analyzing both the impact of technology

and its market potential. This is accomplished by

a double geographical analysis, ranging from an

approach to generating regions of innovations to

the regions of publication of those patents, ex-

plaining the flow of technology. The following

tables and figures summarize the activity of gen-

erating and publishing the offices and countries

with more activity.

Table 3 highlights in the first instance the lid-

ership of the Asiatic region wherein China,

Republic of Korea and Japan have generated the

47% of the total patents in the technological area

of interest.

Table 3. Number of patentes by major countries or

offices of Priority Application

Application Country/Office Applications % Total

China 26 35%

Republic of Korea 23 31%

Russia 9 12%

Japan 8 11%

WIPO 3 4%

USA 3 4% EPO 2 3%

Taiwán 1 1% Germany 1 1%

Norway 1 1% Spain 1 1%

TOTAL 78* 100%


Note (*). While the number of patent families recovered

was 75, the priority claim of these may involve several

countries, and therefore the number of applications per

country exceeds the number of families recovered.

In turn, Figure 4 shows the evolution of applica-

tions in the top ten priority countries or offices

which adds a temporal nuance that allows for

the continuity of research and development in

the area, wherein it is shown that the activity of

China and the Republic of Korea dated back to

2000, showing an increasing trend.

By contrast, Japan has followed a different

evolution with more activity at the beginning of

the decade compared with its neighboring

countries. This Japanese activity decreased at the

end of the decade.


Figure 4. Evolution of the distribution of patents by

priority country

Regarding publication, Table 4 shows the

distribution of patents (137) by country or office

where its extension has been managed.

As in generation, it highlights the lidership of the

Asiatic region in publication, with a 58% of total

documents. That means that this continent

represents a key market in the technological area

of interest, followed by the Europe, wherein

countries such us Spain, Germany and Norway,

accumulate 13% of innovations.




Table 4. Number of patents by major countries or offices

Publication

Country/Office Publications % Total Major Companies

China 36 26%

UNIV DALIAN OCEANOGRAPHY [13]; UNIV SHANGHAI

COMMUNICATION [5]; MORINFORMSISTEMA AGAT CONCERN

STOCK CO [4]; QINGDAO OCEAN CREW VOCATIONAL COLLEGE [4];

RUSSIA MIN AGENCY LEGAL PROTECTION INTEL [4]; ST

PETERSBURG MALAKHIT MARINE ENG BUR [4]

Republic of Korea 32 23%

HYUNDAI HEAVY IND CO LTD [9]; AGENCY DEFENSE DEV [4];

DAEYANG ELECTRIC CO LTD [2]; MARINE CYBERNETICS AS [2];

ELECTRONICS&TELECOM RES INST [2]; SIEMENS AG [2]; UNIV

MOKPO [2]

Japan 12 9%

DOKURITSU GYOSEI HOJIN KOKAI KUNRENSHO [3];

MARINE CYBERNETICS AS [2]; ASAHI KOYO KK [2];

MITSUI ENG & SHIPBUILDING CO LTD [2]; FUJITSU LTD [2]

United States of America 10 7%

HUNTINGTON INGALLS INCORPORATED [2];

NEWPORT NEWS SHIPBUILDING AND DRY DOCK COMPANY [2];

NORTHROP GRUMMAN SHIPBUILDING INC. [2]; INNOVATION

MARITIME [2];

JPMORGAN CHASE BANK N.A. AS COLLATERAL AGENT [2];

LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION [2]

WIPO 10 7%

MORINFORMSISTEMA AGAT CONCERN STOCK CO [4];

OTKRYTOE AKTSIONERNOE OBSCHESTVO SANKT PETERBURGSKOE

MORSKOE B MASH MALAKHIT [4];

RUSSIA MIN AGENCY LEGAL PROTECTION INTEL [4];

ST PETERSBURG MALAKHIT MARINE ENG BUR [4]

Russia 10 7%

GRANIT-7 STOCK CO [3];

KURS CENTR RES DEV INST STOCK CO [3];

MORINFORMSISTEMA AGAT CONCERN STOCK CO [2];



RUSSIA MIN AGENCY LEGAL PROTECTION INTEL [2];

ST PETERSBURG MALAKHIT MARINE ENG BUR [2]

EPO 7 5%

MARINE CYBERNETICS AS [2]; NEDERLANDSE ORGANISATIE VOOR

TOEGEPAST-NATUURWETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK TNO [2];

SAAB AB [2]

Eurasian Patent

Organization 4 3%



FEDERALNOE G UCHREZHDENIE FEDERALNOE AGENTSTVO

PRAVOVOI ZASCHITE RESULTATOV INTELLEKTUALNOI DEYATELN

[2]

Spain 3 2% ENPROGA SL [2]

Germany 3 2% None

Norway 3 2% MARINE CYBERNETICS AS [3]

Austria 2 1% None

Australia 2 1% None

Brazil 1 1% None

Taiwan 1 1% None

Denmark 1 1% None

TOTAL 137 100%





In addition, Figure 5 shows the evolution of pa-

tents published in the top ten countries or

offices, which adds a temporary shade to assess

the market interest. It is shown a similar pattern

to generation, wherein Republic of Korea has an

important growing in the last 3 years with the

publication of 69% of 32 inventions.


Figure 5. Evolution of the distribution of patents by

publication country/office

Finally, the following figure shows the regions in

which the innovation in the area have been

generated and spread out7.

It is important to highlight the use of the

International Offices in the extension of the

innovations, which emphasizes the global nature

of the technology of interest.

7 It must be noted that patent applications processed

through the WIPO are able in the 30 months since their

first application, to design countries considered of interest

for future exploitation of protected development.


Figure 6. Generation / Publication Areas

2.5. Competitive Landscape

Regarding the type of applicants, it is possible to

have an idea about who is developing the tech-

nology, its distribution and how close is its com-

mercialization.

In this sense, the companies own a 70% share of

the innovation, it´s therefore an area introduced

in the market. Universities and R&D centres play

a crucial role developing inventions with 25% of

innovations.


Figure 7. Applicant Type

On the other hand, based on the search results

of the State of the Art, a first a competitive

intelligence landscape analysis was conducted to




identify key owners behind the innovations in

the field of assembly methods in shipbuilding

industry.

These key players are identified based on the

number of patents they have. Players owning

patents and published applications in the last ten

years could be important players in the research

and development of this technology. The initial

analysis of the patent data reveals the following

key players active in the area of interest, entirely

integrated by companies directly or indirectly to

the marine industry mainly from Asia8.

Furthermore, it should be noted that 33% of the

top applicants are Russian.

Table 5 presents the list of top applicants

(companies and universities), which represent a

25% of all applicants, which accumulated 61% of

documents.

It is interesting to note that the protection

strategy is eminently national, that means that

the main applicants protect their inventions

through their national patent and trademark

offices.

First, the UNIVERSITY OF DALIAN appears as a

top applicant. Its protections are mainly focused

on Simulation systems for use in maritime

search and rescue field and high quality

navigation simulator for navigation teaching

and training.

8 It shows the consistency of the results with the previous

section wherein the predominance of Asian companies is

stated in the table.

Table 5. Top Applicants

Applicants Nº

Families

%

Total

Priority

Country

UNIV DALIAN

OCEANOGRAPHY 11 15% China

HYUNDAI HEAVY IND

CO LTD 6 8%

Republic of

Korea

KOREAN AGENCY FOR

DEFENSE

DEVELOPMENT (ADD)

4 5% Republic of

Korea

QINGDAO PORT GROUP

CO LTD 3 4% China

CENTRAL SCIENTIFIC

RESEARCH INSTITUTE

KURS

3 4% Russia

CHINESE PEOPLE'S

LIBERATION ARMY 3 4% China

MITSUI ENG &

SHIPBUILDING CO LTD 2 3% Japan

GRANIT-7 STOCK CO 2 3% Russia

MORINFORMSISTEMA

AGAT CONCERN STOCK

CO

2 3% Russia

ELECTRONICS &

TELECOMMUNICATIONS

RESEARCH INSTITUTE -

KOREA (ETRI)

2 3% Republic of

Korea

ST PETERSBURG

MALAKHIT MARINE ENG

BUR

2 3% Russia

UNIV MOKPO NAT IND

ACAD COOP GROU 2 3%

Republic of

Korea

UNIV SHANGHAI

MARITIME 2 3% China

TOTAL 46* 61% Source: Own generation based on patent databases

Note (*) Some of these companies can perform their

innovations with other companies. Thus one can belong to

several patent applicants.

In second place appears the Korean company

HYUNDAI HEAVY IND. CO. LTD with 8% share of

innovations. Its research lines are focused in

navigation simulation equipment.

Next, it is important to highlight that the top ten

positions include Asian military organizations

such us KOREAN AGENCY FOR DEFENSE




DEVELOPMENT (ADD)9 and CHINESE PEOPLE'S

LIBERATION ARMY10. The first one develops a

real time simulation auto analyzer of battle

system for naval vessel, has analyzing unit that

analyzes outside coupling data and intra-assay

data, and produces simulation coupling

analyzed result; and the military organization

CHINESE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY through

its Navy Military Training Equipment Research

Institute develops an aeronaval integrated

environment simulation device.

Finally, the Russian company GRANIT-7 STOCK

CO has patented an invention focused in marine

simulator for instruction, training and raising

qualifications of operators and specialists on

using hydrophysical systems for detection and

classification of anomalies in aquatic

environment.

3. Analysis of Scientific Publications

Regarding to the literature, It has been used a

search strategy similar to that employed with

patents in order to identify those scientific

papers published since 2003 and related to

Virtual reality equipment in 3D designs,

fabrication/assembly methods, worker training,

safety and salvage methods for naval industry.

Some simple conclusions could be recoverd

from the 47 scientific publications, such as the

evolution of publications. In this case the follow-

ing figure shows a continuous trend, with an

average of 5 science publications.

9 Is responsible for the planning and conduct of all defense

acquisition for the Republic of Korea, including R&D, Test

and Evaluation and support for foreign military purchase 10

Military arm of the Communist Party of China.

Source: Own generation based on scientific publications databases

Figure 8. Evolution of scientific publications

Regarding the distribution of scientific

publications by document type, Figure 9 shows

that proceedings papers are the first source of

broadcasting the studies in the area,

representing a 70% of the total scientific

documents published. As a second type appear

articles representing a 28%, while the remaining

2% corresponds to meeting abstract.


Figure 9. Publications type

Table 6 shows the main sources of information,

ie journals, congresses, conferences, workshops,

yearbooks or symposia which have been

published from 2003 to the present.

These relate mainly to system simulation, virtual

reality and computer science or scientific

computing, which include magazines such as

SYSTEM SIMULATION AND SCIENTIFIC

COMPUTING, INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON




VIRTUAL REALITY AND ITS APPLICATION IN

INDUSTRY, ADVANCED COMPUTER

TECHNOLOGY and INTERNATIONAL

CONFERENCE ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

AND COMPUTER SCIENCE, among others.

Table 6. Main sources

Source Total

SYSTEM SIMULATION AND SCIENTIFIC

COMPUTING 4

IEEE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON

SYSTEMS, MAN AND CYBERNETICS (SMC) 2

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON VIRTUAL

REALITY AND ITS APPLICATION IN INDUSTRY 2

INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON EDUCATION

TECHNOLOGY AND COMPUTER SCIENCE 2

ROBOTICS AND COMPUTER-INTEGRATED

MANUFACTURING 2

TOTAL 12


Finally, the following table lists the main entities

that have published in specialized journals in the

technological area of interest, where it is shown

the leadership of the Asiatic continent.

On the other hand, research centres concentrate

the 100% of the publications, wherein the

organization with more publications is again the

UNIVERSITY OF DALIAN.

Tabla 7. Top Entities

Entidades Total

DALIAN UNIVERSITY 11

GYDNIA MAR UNIVERSITY 4

SHANDONG JIAO TONG UNIVERSITY 3

SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY 3

WUHAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 2

UNIVERSITY OF ULSAN 2

TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF MARINE SCIENCE &

TECHNOLOGY 2

SHANGHAI MARITIME UNIV 2

NAVAL UNIV ENGN 2

KOBE UNIVERSITY 2

XIDIAN UNIVERSITY 1

XIAMEN UNIVERSITY 1

UNIVERSITY OF RENNES 1

UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND 1

UNIVERSITY OF OSLO 1

UNIV TECHNOL COMPIEGNE 1

STORD HAUGESUND UNIV COLL 1

STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY 1

SOUTH CHINA UNIVERSITY OF

TECHNOLOGY 1

QINGDAO OCEAN SHIPPING MARINERS 1

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE &

TECHNOLOGY 1

NATIONAL TAIWAN UNIVERSITY 1

KYUNGPOOK NATIONAL UNIVERSITY 1

JIMEI UNIV 1

GYEONGSANG NATL UNIV JINJU 1

ELECTRONICS & TELECOMMUNICATIONS

RESEARCH INSTITUTE - KOREA (ETRI) 1

DARMSTADT UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY 1

BRODARSKI INST DOO 1

TOTAL 47





4. Bibliographic References

To complement the results of the searches,

additional information is provided concerning

the top companies in the area. In this section we

attach a brief summary of the company and

relevant data that may be of interest.

DALIAN MARITIME UNIVERSITY

No.2 Linggong Road,

Ganjingzi District,

Dalian City

Liaoning Province

T: +86-411-84708320 84708304

http://www.dlmu.edu.cn

Founded in 1909, Dalian Maritime University

（DMU） is one of the largest and best maritime

universities and is the only key maritime

institution under the Ministry of Transport,

China. DMU enjoys a high reputation

internationally as an excellent center of maritime

education and training as recognized by

International Maritime Organization.

DMU has 4 Post-doctoral Research Centers, 6

Primary Discipline Doctoral Programs, 32

Subordinate Discipline Doctoral Programs, 18

Primary Discipline Master’s Programs, 64

Subordinate Discipline Master’s Programs, and

48 undergraduate programs.

DMU now consists of 19 teaching and research

institutions, including Navigation College, Marine

Engineering College, Information Science and

Technology College, Transportation and

Management College, Environmental Science

and Engineering College, Transportation

Equipments and Ocean Engineering College, Law

School, Foreign Languages College, Public

Management and Humanities College,

Department of Mathematics, Department of

Physics, etc. The current student population has

risen to approximately 20000. Up to now, more

than 60000 advanced professionals have been

educated and trained at DMU, most of which

have become the backbone of China’s shipping

industry.

HYUNDAI HEAVY IND CO LTD

Suite 1 Jeonha-dong

Dong-gu

Ulsan 682 792

KOR

T: 82 2 746 4603

www.hyundaiheavy.co

Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (HHI or "the

company") is one of the largest heavy industries

company and one of the leading shipbuilders in

the world. The company is also engaged in other

businesses, including oil refining, construction

equipment, offshore and engineering, engine

and machinery, industrial plant and engineering,

electro electric systems, financial services and

green energy. The company has operations in

the Americas, Europe, Asia, Middle East and

Africa. It is headquartered in Ulsan, South Korea

and employs 24,948 people.

The company recorded revenues of

KRW53,711,665.8 million ($48,877.6 million)

during the financial year ended December 2011

(FY2011), an increase of 43.8% over FY2010. The

operating profit of the company was

KRW4,535,738.7 million ($4,127.5 million) in

FY2011, a decrease of 18% compared to FY2010.

Its net profit was KRW2,559,005.8 million

($2,328.7 million) in FY2011, a decrease of 38.4%

compared to FY2010.




AGENCY FOR DEFENSE DEVELOPMENT

462 Jochiwon-gil Yuseong-gu Daejeon,

Korea, Liaoning

T: +82-42-821-2842

http://www.add.re.kr/

The Korean Agency for Defense Development

(ADD) is responsible for the planning and

conduct of all defense acquisition for the

Republic of Korea, including R&D, Test and

Evaluation and support for foreign military

purchases. It is headquartered, and almost all of

its activities located, approximately 120 miles

south of Seoul in Taejon.

Agency for Defense Development was

established in August 1970 under the banner of

the self-reliable defense. ADD is the one and only

national agency for R&D in defense technology

contributing to enforcing the national defense,

to improving the national R&D capacity and to

fostering the domestic industry. It seemed

impossible to manufacture even the basic

weapons when it was established, but it

succeeded in domestic development of the most

advanced weapon systems and reached to the

10th world-level in the defense technology.

QINGDAO PORT (GROUP) CO., LTD

Port Administration Office

6 Gangqing Road

Qingdao,

Shandong 266011

China

T: +86 53 2298

http://www.qdport.com/

Qingdao Port (Group) Co., Ltd., through its

subsidiaries, operates marine terminals. It

provides loading, unloading, handling, storage,

logistics, import, and export services primarily

for containers, bulk cargo, alumina, fertilizers,

coal, iron ore, agriculture supplies, crude oil,

steel materials, and grains.

The company also offers container leasing,

machinery and vehicles handling, and shipping

agency services. In addition, it provides

telecommunication and computer information

services to ships in the Qingdao Port. The

company was founded in 1995 and is based in

Qingdao, China. It has terminals in Hong Kong,

Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Zhangjiagang,

Yangzhou, Nanjing, Qingdao, Dalian, and

Yingkou.

CENTRAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INSTITUTE KURS

34a Kirpichnaya St,

Moscow, Russia

105187

T: +7 (495) 365-1153

http://www.kyrs.ru/

The Central Scientific Research Institute Kurs was

established in June 1979 as a head organization

in the shipbuilding industry working in the field

of ship-mounted weapon and ship

radioelectronic equipment.

During the 25 year of its existence, the institute

has accumulated a wide experience of complex

researches for military and civil shipbuilding. It

also created a reservoir of knowledge and

technologies in the sphere of development

sophisticated hardware-software systems.




We are ready for collaboration in all fields of

activity of the institute Kurs, both military and

civil. Kurs Central Scientific Research Institute JSC

is the head scientific-research organization of the

shipbuilding industry in the sphere of system

engineering of shipborne radioelectronic

weapon, including the provision of

electromagnetic compatibility between the ship

radioelectronic weapon, the board equipment pf

ship-based aircrafts and the missile weapon.

The main areas of activity of the institute are:

- Validation of lines of development of

radioelectronic facilities.

- Optimization of cooperation of ship

facilities.

- Automation of activity of the authorities

responsible for development and control

of research and development program.

- Electromagnetic compatibility of

radioelectronic facilities.

- Ship-traffic control systems.

- Interactive training systems, electronic

documentation systems, electronic

catalogues and catalogue descriptions.

- Semirealistic and mathematical

simulation.

- Autopilots of ships and vessels.

- Commercial refrigeration equipment.

- Certification tests.

- Commercial and manufacturing

equipment.

- Low-temperature equipment.

CHINESE PEOPLE'S LIBERATION ARMY

http://eng.mod.gov.cn/

The People's Liberation Army is the military arm

of the Communist Party of China (CPC) consisting

of land, sea, strategic missile and air forces.

Initially called the Chinese Workers and Peasants

Red Army, the PLA was established on August 1,

1927 which is celebrated annually as "PLA Day".

The PLA is the world's largest military force, with

strength of approximately 2,250,000 personnel

(about 0.18% of the country's population). The

PLA comprises five main service branches,

consisting of the PLA Ground Force, PLA

Navy (PLAN),PLA Air Force (PLAAF), Second

Artillery Corps (strategic missile force), and the

PLA Reserve Force.

MITSUI ENGINEERING & SHIPBUILDING CO LTD

6-4, Tsukiji 5-chome, Chuo-ku,

Tokyo 104-8439

Japan

T: + 81 3 3544 3147

http://www.mes.co.jp/english

Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. is a

manufacturer of ships, power electronics

equipments, and plants and steel structures.The

company is also engaged in the information

communication and engineering businesses. It

primarily operates in Japan, Panama, and Brazil.

Mitsui E&S is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and

employed 10,025 people as of March 31, 2012.




The company recorded revenues of JPY571,852

million ($7,262.5 million) during the financial

year ended March 2012 (FY2012), a decrease of

2.9% as compared to FY2011. The operating

profit of the company was JPY31,421 million

($399 million) during FY2012, a decrease of

19.2% as compared to FY2011. The net profit

was JPY17,880 million ($227.1 million) in FY2012,

an increase of 32.5% over FY2011.

The ships division builds and repairs various

types of ships and offshore development

equipment. Its product portfolio includes, bulk

carriers, ore carriers, crude oil tankers, LNG

carriers, reefers, containers carriers, naval ships,

patrol vessels, research vessels, training vessels,

and work vessels.

The division also manufactures FPSOs (floating

production, storage and offloading systems),

unmanned underwater vehicles, and other ships

offshore development equipment. The

company's machinery division manufacturers

engines, industrial machinery, and induction

heaters.

Its product portfolio includes, marine and land

diesel engines, diesel power plants, gas turbine

co-generation systems, gas engines, boilers,

process compressors, steam turbine generators,

and BF top pressure recovery turbine generators.

The division is also involved in the manufacturing

of towers and vessels, heat exchangers,

induction heaters, related machineries for

semiconductor and liquid crystal, and other

machineries.

The company's steel structures and construction

division is involved in the construction of builds

bridges, building steel frames, storage tanks,

hybrid floating structures, container cranes,

container terminal management systems, and

others.

The company's plants division provides various

services including engineering, manufacturing,

procurement, construction, operation, and

maintenance of various plants. It mainly provides

services to petrochemical plants, chemical fiber

plants, synthetic resin plants, oil refining plants,

inorganic and fertilizer plants, garbage disposal

plants, water treatment plants, flue gas

treatment plants, resources recycling plants,

nuclear fuel cycle plants, spent fuel casks, and

other plants.

The others division includes the company's IT-

related activities and other operations. It

includes the development and sales of

information systems, and other various service

businesses such as warehousing.

MORINFORMSISTEMA AGAT CONCERN STOCK

29 Entuziastov Avenue,

Moscow Russia 105275

T: +7 (495) 673-4063

Concern Morinformsystem-Agat JSC is a parent

organization in Russian shipbuilding that is

specialized in information systems, IP

technologies, system engineering of marine data-

computing equipment, electromagnetic

compatibility of radio-electronic facilities,

degaussing systems, fire control system of sea-

based cruise and ballistic missiles, combat

information and control systems and integrated

management systems of surface ships and

submarines.

The main activities of our Concern are

development, production, warranty service,




upgrading, repair, and utilization of integrated

multifunctional ship management systems,

integrated automation naval force management

equipment, naval missile and artillery control

systems, combat information and control

systems for surface ships and submarines,

automated shipboard countermine control

systems, naval unified computing machines,

training simulators, multifunctional ship- and

shore-based radar systems, combined weapon

and fire alarm facilities, ship and coastal missile

systems, and also hydroacoustic systems.

Apart from SPA Agat, Concern Morinformsystem-

Agat JSC includes such major enterprises as Mars

JSC, Typhoon JSC, Salyut JSC, Topaz JSC, Ametist

JSC, Izumrud JSC, Kurs JSC, Binom JSC, Kometa

JSC, Meridian JSC, Kamchatka Hydrophysical

Institute, Atoll JSC, Elektropribor JSC and

Andreyev Acoustic Institute.

ELECTRONICS&TELECOMUNICATION RESEARCH

INSTITUTE (ETRI)

218 Gajengno, Yuseong-gu,

Daejeon, KOREA

T: +82-42-860-6114

http://www.etri.re.kr/eng/

The Electronics and Telecommunications

Research Institute, Korea is a government-

backed research institute in Daedeok Science

Town in Daejeon, Republic of Korea.

Since its foundation in 1976, ETRI, a global ICT

research institute, has been making its immense

effort to provide Korea a remarkable growth in

the field of ICT industry. ETRI delivers Korea as

one of the top ICT nations in the World, by

unceasingly developing world’s first and best

technologies.

Under the vision of Global Leader for Future ICT

Convergence Technology, the IT Convergence

Technology Research Laboratory aims to develop

core technologies, establish world-class

industries and create new convergence

industries. To achieve its goal, the laboratory is

developing a range of technologies, including

converging technologies of System SOC and

Embedded Software to strengthen core

competitiveness of SW-SoC convergence

industry, environmental friendly green

computing technology for low-carbon green

growth, u-health/life care technology and human

friendly intelligent robot technology, future

vehicle and ship building technologies

converging sensors with telecommunications,

intelligent mail distribution technology.

SHANGHAI MARITIME UNIVERSITY

1550 Haigang Ave

Shanghai, P.R.China 201306

T: (86-21)38282000

Shanghai Maritime University (SMU) is a multi-

disciplinary university that encompasses such

areas as engineering, management, economics,

law, liberal arts, and science, with a special

emphasis on shipping technology, economics and

management. Chinese maritime education

originated at Shanghai and grew out of the

Shipping Section of Shanghai Industrial College

founded in 1909 (towards the end of the Qing

Dynasty). SMU was established by the Ministry

of Communications in 1959. Since 2000, SMU has




been mainly administered by Shanghai

Municipality and has been co-constructed by

Shanghai Municipality and the Ministry of

Transport.

At present the university runs 2 post-doctoral

research stations, 9 doctoral programs, 44

master’s degree programs, 45 bachelor’s degree

programs, and 12 associate degree programs.

Consisting of 14 colleges, SMU has over 20,000

full-time students, of who over 16,200 are

undergraduates and 2,600 are postgraduate

students. Of the over 1,000 full-time teachers,

135 are professors and 45 percent hold a

doctorate. Over the past decades the university

has produced specialists of various types at

various levels for the country’s shipping industry.

It has graduated over 60,000 students, who are

employed in shipping companies, port

enterprises and government institutions.

Deservedly, SMU has been honored as a “cradle

of international shipping specialists”.

Key research institutes and laboratories include:

Engineering Research Center of Container Supply

Chain Technology, Engineering Research Center

of Navigation Simulation Technology, Laboratory

of Shipping Technology and Control Engineering,

Technology Novelty Research Station, Shanghai

International Shipping Research Center,

Maritime Law Research Center and Shipping

Logistics Information Engineering Technology

Research Center. Moreover, SMU boasts 1 state-

level key discipline, 5 state-level specialties with

special features, 9 ministerial or municipal key

disciplines, and 17 Shanghai municipal

“educational heights”. The SMU owns an aquatic

training center, the Yufeng Ship, a 10-thousand-

ton container ship for teaching and internship

training, and a newly-built 48-thousand-ton

Yangtze handymax bulk carrier for teaching and

internship training ship which will be put into use

by the end of 2012.




5. Disclaimer

International Patent Classification is made according to objective criteria. However, the

interpretation of these documents always involves a degree of subjectivity, due to the fact

that the classification is made by different examiners, from different technical sectors and

countries of origin (and, therefore, different languages), and therefore that leaves certain

limits to subjectivity and interpretation of some concepts. Therefore, it should always keep in

mind that we have to accept a margin of error.

During the investigations, the only files (either patents or utility models) that can be detected

are those that have already been published. In Spain (as in most countries), the utility model

applications are not published until at least 6 months from the date of application, and

patents to a minimum of 18 months from the date of application. Therefore, the utility model

applications filed in the last 6 months and the patent of the last 18 months are not "detected"

during investigations. In some countries, patent applications are not published until they are

granted, so that in such cases, the period during which they are not detectable is 2-3 years or

more. In other countries such as Italy (and some Latin American countries), there is an

enormous delay in the Patent Office and this process could take several years. Either way, it

should be noted that patent applications are not published, in most cases, even after 18

months from the filing date or priority date (if claimed).

On the other hand, it is desirable to indicate that many companies do not apply for patents

and / or utility models using their name, but using other companies or individuals to make the

applications.




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Virtual reality equipment in 3D

designs, fabrication/assembly

methods, worker training, safety

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