Kalman filtering for positioning and heading control of ships and offshore rigs

• Published in: IEEE control systems Vol. 29; no. 6; pp. 32 - 46
• Main Authors: Fossen, T.I., Perez, T.
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.12.2009; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Actuators; Applied sciences; Computer science; control theory; systems; Control system synthesis; Control systems; Control theory. Systems; Exact sciences and technology; Filtering; Frequency; Kalman filters; Marine vehicles; Motion control; Motion estimation; Position measurement; Velocity measurement; Ship; Offshore structure; Position control; Kalman filter
• ISSN: 1066-033X; 1941-000X
• DOI: 10.1109/MCS.2009.934408

In this article, we have described the main components of a ship motion-control system and two particular motion-control problems that require wave filtering, namely, dynamic positioning and heading autopilot. Then, we discussed the models commonly used for vessel response and showed how these models are used for Kalman filter design. We also briefly discussed parameter and noise covariance estimation, which are used for filter tuning. To illustrate the performance, a case study based on numerical simulations for a ship autopilot was considered. The material discussed in this article conforms to modern commercially available ship motion-control systems. Most of the vessels operating in the offshore industry worldwide use Kalman filters for velocity estimation and wave filtering. Thus, the article provides an up-to-date tutorial and overview of Kalman-filter-based wave filtering.