Creating resilient and multi-layered transportation networks is of paramount importance for modern society, particularly considering the need to respond to a diverse array of risks. These resilient multilayer transport networks appear to share comparable properties with vital multilayer distribution systems found onboard large and complex ships. However, little is currently known regarding the similarities and differences in the design of multilayer networks found in various contexts, such as transportation infrastructure and shipboard distribution systems. This study introduces several multi-modal networks and elucidates their similarities and differences and their design processes. A case study details a typical topology of integrated onboard distribution systems, represented abstractly as a multilayer network to showcase said similarities and differences. The study concludes with the lessons learned from comparing transportation networks with vital onboard distribution systems and provides an outlook for future research into resilient shipboard systems.

Waterborne transport is very important for moving freight and passengers globally. To make this transport more efficient, vessel design must adapt to changing missions, regulations and the occurrence of malfunctions. This paper presents the design of an intelligent decision-support framework to assist marine engineers and vessel operators in updating the system and control architecture of marine vessels before and during a mission. The connection between the system architecture and control design perspectives is enabled using a semantics-based technique. To this end, the multi-level vessel control system is described by a semantic database, a knowledge graph used to connect the components automatically, and quantitative service criteria. Considering the system architecture, the optimal modification is deduced using modularity and complexity criteria, originating from the field of network theory. On the control side, an intelligent automation supervisor is designed to make offline and online decisions regarding the energy deficit to execute a new mission and the active automation configuration during operation. For offline decisions, system architecture modifications are requested by the vessel designers to cover the energy deficit. During operation, switching between hardware and virtual sensors as well as switching between energy management controllers is implemented to handle the effects of sensor faults. The framework is successfully applied to a case study of a tugboat used to adapt to missions with different power requirements, while simulation results are used to indicate its application in supporting the decisions of vessel designers and human vessel operators.

Reduced crewing concepts require a higher level of control and integration of platform systems. A clear reliability assessment of these systems in early design stages reduces the need for alternations in later design stages but remains challenging to perform. This paper addresses the design of reliable and integrated onboard systems such as cooling water, power distribution, and control systems. Current approaches to making platform systems more reliable, such as redundancy, modularity (independent subsystems) and reconfigurability, are analysed from a network theory perspective. Current graph measures do not align with experience-based requirements for improving system robustness. Our method combines the principles of network theory and experience-and rule-based system requirements to provide a comprehensive framework for a reliability comparison of integrated multilayer platform systems (distributing more than one type of flow). The robustness requirements are translated into network metrics to facilitate a quantitative trade-off typical to the early stages of the design process. The case study offers a preliminary view of the system topology of a notional naval vessel, consisting of power distribution, cooling water distribution and control systems. The network metrics facilitate an assessment of the system’s reliability compared to alternative system topologies with differentiating numbers of nodes, edges and density. This study finds varying dependencies of the robustness metrics on the network properties, shining new light on whether and how one should compare distribution system robustness.