초록
Submerged bodies such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) or remotely operated vehicles (ROV) are widely used in various fields of exploring underseas. Those bodies keep ballasting and deballasting for stable navigation and operation. Identifying the internal volumetric spaces of the bodies is a primary step for such an operation. Unfortunately, most CAD models given to the engineer do not properly represent the compartments since each face of a compartment exists as an independent entity rather than as a face that belongs to the compartment. In this paper, an algorithm that automatically identify the faces as a group that forms a closed volumetric space, i.e., a compartment is presented. A submerged body is sliced into a number of cross sections. Each sliced section is analyzed to yield closed loops that are sections of the compartment. Then, the associated closed loops are gathered along the longitudinal direction to form a compartment. The algorithm presented is shown to provide a practical and reasonable solution that can readily be used in various applications.
