by Dr.-Ing. Christoph Jürgenhake, Group Manager Integrated Mechatronic Systems, Tobias Seidenberg, Research Assistant, and Stefan Pfeifer, Head of Development Methodology and Management, Fraunhofer Institute for Mechatronic Systems Design

Imagine you go to a car dealer and ask the manufacturer to produce a vehicle that has a maximum speed of exactly 218 km/h and must not weigh more than one tonne.

Furthermore, it has to have a range of exactly 1,000 km with one tank filling.

Surely, it must also have three airbags on each side, while the trunk cannot be bigger than 500 litres.

Of course, it has to be a three-seater and painted in high gloss candy pink.

Silly, isn't it?

Then why does everybody do that in shipbuilding?

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