1. INTRODUCTION

Michlet is a computer workbench that can be used for investigations into some aspects of ship hydrodynamics. Although it is not a ship design program, Michlet can be used for preliminary design work such as estimating the resistance, wave elevation patterns and bottom pressure signatures of monohulls, multihulls and submarines. GODZILLA, the optimisation module of Michlet, uses artificial life algorithms to search for hulls of minimum resistance, or for hulls with other specific characteristics.

Michlet is not an easy program for newcomers to hull design. A familiarity with the first few chapters of an introductory Naval Architecture text would be useful. There are several good WWW articles that might serve as sufficient introduction.

There are many opportunities to waste a lot of computer time and human effort with Michlet. Incorrect specification of parameters in the input file could result in completely useless output and it is imperative that users gain familiarity with the input file and its nuances.

Limitations

In the manuals, Crippled signifies that the option is still under development or that it is unavailable in the current version.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the following people for donations, help, ideas and/or encouragement:

Thanks also to Lysistrata, Hyperion, and Vorpal at Avatar MUD for help with the multiple agent version and for continuing support.


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