Dynamic Thrust Allocation of Dynamic Positioning Vessel Based on Model Predictive Control

The dynamic positioning (DP) vessel maintains its position and heading by active thrusters. For safety reasons, DP vessels are typically designed with redundancy thrusters more than needed for motion control. Optimization theories are useful in finding thrust allocation solutions that minimize fuel consumption and reduce “wear and tear” on a thruster. But several challenges exist such as uncertain thruster model, thruster dynamics characters and the individual limitations of the thrusters. In this paper, a dynamic thrust allocation scheme is presented based on model predictive control (MPC) that directly takes thrusters with dynamics characters and various constraints into account. It is shown in simulations that the MPC dynamic thrust allocation scheme performs better in comparison with an existing static allocation method. Its main advantage is the ability to handle thruster dynamics characters and various constraints.