Conceptual design of a pipe routing system on a pipelaying vessel
A discrete event simulation study at Allseas
L.N.M. Sijm (TU Delft - Mechanical Engineering)
Mark B. Duinkerken – Mentor (TU Delft - Transport Engineering and Logistics)
Xiaoli Jiang – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Transport Engineering and Logistics)
Rafael Leite Leite Patrão – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Transport Engineering and Logistics)
D. Bujakiewicz-Baars – Mentor (Allseas Engineering)
J. Ramlakhan – Mentor (Allseas Engineering)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
The adoption of new technologies on pipelaying vessels is closely linked to the demand for full automation of pipe handling operations. However, pipe handling systems are rarely addressed in research, and, to the best of our knowledge, no studies exist that describe comparable intralogistics systems with similar control structures and movement restrictions. As a result, there is no clear reference for how such automation can be realized. This study addresses this gap by developing a conceptual pipe routing system for the pipelaying vessel Solitaire, operated by Allseas, and implements it within a Discrete Event Simulation model of the pipe handling system. The model is used to evaluate multiple routing strategies under different pipe supply scenarios and to determine the most effective routing strategy for the case study. The results show that a heuristic approach to sequential decision-making, framed within a model-free Markov Decision Process, can automate pipelaying operations and lay the groundwork for future optimization through reinforcement learning.