Experimental Results of Cooperative Control Applied to Multi-Vessel DP Operations

Offshore operations involving several floating units are becoming more frequent nowadays. Such operations are used for sub-sea equipment installation and undersea structures launching, for example. This kind of operations requires a high level of coordination between the vessels, which today is made without the ship’s information exchange, being each ship individually commanded. Therefore, in those cases a cooperative control could be applied, ensuring that the relative distance between the ships are maintained in limited range, controlling operational parameters such as the lifting line traction. The benefits of this control are shown when compared to the non cooperative control by means of a experimental setup with two DP vessels.