Abstract
The paper explores the automatic deployment of oil containment booms around ships, using an unmanned surface vehicle (USV). The task of the USV is boom towing following adequate trajectories. A standard scenario would be ships moored to a dock, although it also could be open sea. The target is to prevent leakage escape during crude transfers, or any other contaminant. Surrounding ships with booms is becoming a common practice. The main result of the research is to confirm that this automatic deployment can be done, according with a suitable USV planning. To justify this conclusion, a combined effort of simulation and experiments has been done. A mathematical model of the boom dynamics has been developed, and used for the development of a simulation tool. This tool is employed for operation planning, and for estimation of forces and other aspects. Experiments have been done with a scale USV and boom, with satisfactory results. The paper describes the models and the experiments. Some recommendations are deduced from our first results.
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