Simulation, animation and visualization of seaport operations

PORTSIM is a seaport simulation model that computes throughout capability and determines resource utilization at a high level of detail. The ability to animate and to visualize these seaport processes will greatly enhance PORTSIM's capability and will allow planners to see operational constraints and bottlenecks, as opposed to inferring operational limitations through reviewing the existing PORTSIM statistical reports, graphs and charts. The animation and visualization will aid in the validation of the simulation processes and will provide a mechanism for planners to verify that the simulation executes in the desire manner. Playback and callback modes of animation and visualization will be described, and technical challenges to both modes of execution will be addressed.