An experimental investigation of icevaning control for the arctic station-keeping

Abstract

A new approach to icevaning control for the station-keeping of the dynamic positioning (DP) vessels in sea ice condition is introduced in this paper. Most of the previous studies on the DP in sea ice condition are focused on the observation of the response of the DP vessel in managed sea ice condition. However, less focus on the DP control algorithm in sea ice condition has been paid. In this study, a promising auto icevaning control algorithm is presented, and the feasibility of the proposed control algorithm is examined with a set of the model test in the ice tank of Korea Research Institute of Ships and Ocean Engineering (KRISO). The purpose of the icevaning control is that the DP vessel controls its position in a predefined position while heading up toward the ice drifting direction. In order to realize this icevaning action, the task space concept, which is widely applied in the field of robotic arm control, is utilized in the DP control. The icevaning control algorithm is designed in the task space that is associated with the surge and sway motion of the vessel, and the control algorithm does not consider the null space that is the yaw motion of the vessel. Therefore, the icevaning can be performed with no need for explicit observations and measurements on the disturbance in sea ice condition. In order to secure the stability of the icevaning controller, a backstepping technique with Lyapunov stability theory is applied. A set of experiments are conducted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed icevaning control.