As a mechanical engineer, Leonardo da Vinci is a kind of master for me. His capability to associate art and science is really amazing.
I had the chance during the past years to spend time both in Paris (Musée du Louvres for instance) and Firenze (Uffizi gallery, ...), which allowed me to "discover" the two facets of this famous artist.
It was therefore for me an evidence to get involved in our Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE Lab project "Open Codex", trying to virtually bring back to life one of Leonardo' machine.
Among all the sketches of his concepts and inventions (flying machine, tank, parachute, helicopter, ...) available in Piazza della Scala documents, I found a few years ago some surprising ones, in the "1ar folio" part of the Codex Atlanticus: a kind of top view and some detail views of what I think could be a military ship (on the left page of the following picture).
But it was clearly not enough to understand what Leonardo has in mind. I then decided to merge these drawings with the ones describing a kind a tank to create "the third dimension", using CATIA 3DEXPERIENCE Platform.
The story is available in Kenneth Wong article here
Hereafter are some details about the way I developed this project in Dassault Systèmes 3DEXPERIENCE platform, using CATIA and 3DEXCITE applications.
The concept: at first sight, the main sketch can be considered as part of Leonardo’s tank concept, but if you look at the middle, you can easily recognize some wheels with paddles… what leads to think about a ship concept, and maybe a kind of battleship (with 16 cannons aboard...)
The main bridge: the more detailed sketch (maybe a top view) allows me to understand that, in Leornado’s idea, the ship should have 16 cannons in a circular pattern and a propulsion system in the middle.
16 cannons: looking at a small detail (a section view maybe) on the folio, I have designed cannons positioned on a kind of V support.
The propulsion system: after carefully looking at the top view, I think this system should be composed of
- two main wheels with paddles on an axis
- one “starting wheel” on the same axis with 2 handles used to start the rotation of the main wheels.
In fact, not only 2 but 5 handles are clearly visible:
- 2 on the main axis for the main wheels rotations
- 2 associated to what should be the “starting wheel”
- And one more … not easily understandable…
Driving Management System: after thinking about this last 5th handle, looking at some other da Vinci sketches and trying to understand how this ship can be controlled, I have developed a proposal for a driving system simulated in our 3DEXPERIENCE Platform. The idea was to have the main propulsion system rotating around the Z axis of the ship to allow its direction management... thanks to the last handle...
I have also thought about the capability to control the ship using the 2 wheels with paddles on 2 separated axis. But in this case:
- it may be very difficult to go straight forward, due to some difference in the 2 wheels rotation speeds...
- the starting system is only on one side which may lead to some difficulties ...
The third dimension... : after having “define” the main bridge of this battleship using the detailed sketch of the folio, I have tried to develop the shape of this boat in the third dimension. Here again, looking at one ”very low detailed” sketch on the folio, I have developed a proposal for this ship based on da Vinci tank concept in which can be retrieved the cannons circular pattern.
Realtime 3D Experience of Leonardo da Vinci battleship: even if this Digital Mock-up is definitively not finished (how to finish it by the way ?), using our 3DEXPERIENCE Platform and newly available 3DEXCITE applications, I have created a few days ago a new real-time 3D experience putting this concept ship on the sea, in a virtual universe, to virtually bring it to life.
From Leonardo's concept to modern battleships... : finally, I have put together on the sea Leonardo’s battleship concept and some "modern" battleships:
- the MN Aquitaine, a French FREMM (FREgate Multi-Missions) currently in use.
- the USS New-Jersey, built and used between 1942 and 1991
- the DKM Bismark, launched in 1939 and sunk in 1941
- the IJN Yamato, launched in 1940 and destroyed in 1945 (the Yamato and her sistership the Mushashi were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed).
From 2D Skecthes and 3D Digital Mock-up of Leonardo da Vinci idea to what has been developed some centuries afterward…
