Real-Time 3D Simulation for the Trawl Fishing Gear Based on Parallel Processing of Sonar Sensor Data

Abstract

A huge and a complex internal computation is required to visualize the underwater geometry of a fishing gear, because each particle of the gear should be calculated with consideration of several force vectors, such as the movements of the fishing vessel, the buoyancy of the gear, and the tension of pulling or pursing acting on the net panels. The internal computation is the main drawback for providing a real-time visualization that takes into account the force vectors and the changes of underwater environments which can be obtained from the multiple sonar sensors. This paper presents a three-dimensional (3D) visualization tool that offers real-time simulations of the trawl fishing gear using parallel processing for the particles applying the force vectors. This tool also offers different underwater geometries for each fishing gear through a multiview display. The tool employs OpenMP APIs and OpenGL libraries to calculate in parallel the particles and to draw the underwater shapes of fishing gears, respectively. This work can be applied to other simulation systems for analyzing the precise model of graphical geometries as well as modeling the underwater shapes of fishing gears.