Computer-Aided MOORing SELection Guide (MOORSEL)

This Request for Information (RFI) is part of a market research effort to assess completed or developing software that could be used for analyzing the effectiveness of a mooring configuration for the USCG’s floating Aids to Navigation (AtoN) program. The effort will focus on a program that can model and analyze AtoN buoy moorings used in ocean, lake, and river systems in a variety of environmental conditions, and output a recommendation for an optimal mooring. This software will assist the Coast Guard with evaluating the performance of individual mooring configurations to ensure their reliability in dynamic environments to remain on station. The RFI will be used to identify existing commercial products and new and novel solutions that could meet USCG’s need for analyzing mooring configurations. The Coast Guard Research and Development Center (RDC) is conducting research to identify software alternatives that USCG could use to replace its current Coast Guard-owned mooring analysis software, Computer-Aided MOORing SELection Guide (MOORSEL). MOORSEL features a library of all existing buoys and hardware used in USCG inventory that a user can select to analyze in the tool. To complete an analysis, the user inputs their hardware selections (buoy hull type and shape, mooring chain size, anchor mass and material, shape, etc.) and site-specific variables (location, water depth, wind, current, etc.) to analyze the mooring against a set of mooring design rules, thresholds, and constraints. After the tool completes its analysis, it alerts the user if they have designed the mooring properly to remain on station given expected environmental conditions, or if the user needs to adjust the mooring design. The desired software’s minimum mooring analysis functionality will be the same as MOORSEL. The desired software will be supportable on modern information technology systems (e.g., Windows 10 operating systems) and will allow users to customize the program to add and modify objects in a parts library to reflect current AtoN equipment in use (buoys, mooring hardware, etc.).