Output Feedback Cooperative Dynamic Positioning Control for an Unactuated Floating Object Using Multiple Vessels

Abstract

This paper proposes an output feedback cooperative dynamic positioning control scheme for an unactuated floating object using multiple vessels under model uncertainties and environmental disturbances. The floating object is connected to multiple vessels through towlines. At first, nonlinear extended state observers are developed for the floating object and vessels to reconstruct the unmeasured velocity and to estimate the model uncertainties and disturbances. Second, observer-based controllers are designed for the floating object and vessels to drive the floating object to track the reference signal and to achieve the cooperative control of multiple vessels, respectively. The salient features of the proposed control scheme are presented as follows. Firstly, by design the object controller, the tracking performance of the object is improved. Secondly, according to the required force of the floating object, the time-varying formation of vessels is obtained by using the towline attachment geometry of the floating object, control allocation and a towline model. It is shown that all signals in closed-loop system are bounded via Lyapunov analysis. Simulation study is carried out to verify the effectiveness of proposed control method.