Speed and heading control-based collision avoidance for a ship towing system

Speed and heading control-based collision avoidance for a ship towing system

Zhang, Lei (Wuhan University of Technology; School of Navigation)
Liu, Wenjie (Wuhan University of Technology)
Du, Zhe (TU Delft Transport Engineering and Logistics)
Du, Lei (Wuhan University of Technology)
Li, Xiaobin (Wuhan University of Technology)

2023

Collision avoidance is a priority task for ensuring the safety of a maritime transportation system. However, for a ship towing system, which is characterized by multiple vessels and physical connections, the research works about collision avoidance is limited. Thus, this paper proposes a speed and heading control-based conflict resolution of a ship towing system for collision avoidance. Two systems compose the core of the proposed conflict resolution: the risk assessment system and the coordination control system. The risk assessment is to identify the conflict and determine the time of avoiding action by calculating the index of conflict and the available maneuvering margin. The coordination control is based on the model predictive control (MPC) strategy to cooperatively control two tugboats for regulating the position, heading, and speed of the manipulated ship. Simulation experiments show that according to the index of conflict, the time cost, and the fuel consumption, a selected operation of combined heading and speed can be recommended for a ship towing system to provide a safer and more efficient towage manipulation.

Collision avoidance
Conflict resolution
Model predictive control
Ship towing system

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:deb108c5-78cc-479e-bc42-5b5b708c19c1

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isatra.2022.10.010

0019-0578

ISA Transactions, 135, 52-65

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2023 Lei Zhang, Wenjie Liu, Zhe Du, Lei Du, Xiaobin Li