A Study on the Feedforward Control Algorithm for Dynamic Positioning System Using Ship Motion Prediction

Abstract

In the present study we verified performance of feed-forward control algorithm using short term prediction of ship motion information by taking advantage of developed numerical simulation model of FPSO motion. Up until now, various studies have been conducted about thrust control and allocation for dynamic positioning systems maintaining positions of ships or marine structures in diverse sea environmental conditions. In the existing studies, however, the dynamic positioning systems consist of only feedback control gains using a motion of vessel derived from environmental loads such as current, wind and wave. This study addresses dynamic positioning systems which have feedforward control gain derived from forecasted value of a motion of vessel occurred by current, wind and wave force. In this study, the future motion of vessel is forecasted via Brown`s Exponential Smoothing after calculating the vessel motion via a selected mathematical model, and the control force for maintaining the position and heading angle of a vessel is decided by the feedback controller and the feedforward controller using PID theory and forecasted vessel motion respectively. For the allocation of thrusts, the Lagrange Multiplier Method is exploited. By constructing a simulation code for a dynamic positioning system of FPSO, the performance of feedforward control system which has feedback controller and feedforward controller was assessed. According to the result of this study, in case of using feedforward control system, it shows smaller maximum thrust power than using conventional feedback control system.