A SHIP MANEUVERING CONTROL FRAMEWORK
João Borges de Sousa, Anouck Girard, William C. Webster · Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) · 2001
A new ship maneuvering control framework is presented.This framework entails a three layered control architecture, a principled approach to design and implementation within the architecture, and hybrid systems design techniques.The formal model is dynamic networks of hybrid automata.The control architecture is structured according to the principle of composition of ship motions from a minimal set of elemental maneuvers, that are designed and verified independently.These are the building blocks for complex maneuvers that are also formalized in this framework.The principled approach is based on distributed hybrid systems techniques, and spans design and implementation because it uses the same model for both.Hybrid systems control techniques are used to synthesize the elemental maneuvers and to design protocols to coordinate the execution of elemental maneuvers within a complex maneuver.The architecture is faulttolerant by design since it uses verified maneuvers.New control problems are introduced in this context.One is that of safetyto design a controller that always ensures safety in the presence of disturbances.The case study of the Mobile Offshore Base, that motivated the approach, is used to illustrate some of the main concepts.The novelty of the approach stems from the application of concepts and theories from distributed hybrid systems to the Address all correspondence to this author.problem of ship maneuvering.