9 research outputs found
Reliability Assessment of Hull Forms Susceptible to Parametric Roll in Irregular Seas
Traditionally ships are designed to be symmetric about their centerline which makes head seas a very safe heading for roll motion stability. However, in the recent years several incidents of large amplitude roll motion in head seas have been reported which have later been attributed to parametric roll. Parametric roll motion is a phenomenon in which a ship exhibits a large amplitude of roll motion even when it is moving into head seas with no direct excitation. This phenomenon is particularly an issue for modern high-speed fine form container ships and has gained attention relatively recently.
This instability is dangerous because of its manifestation in counter-intuitive headings. Also the roll amplitude during parametric roll rises exponentially with time which gives ship captains and masters very less time to react. While this instability has been studied extensively in regular waves, its manifestation in irregular seas has not received sufficient attention. This dissertation aims at the development of design criteria based on analytical techniques which can help a designer quickly quantify the stability of a vessel to parametric excitation.
For accurate simulation of parametric response of a vessel/platform in irregular seas, an in-house time domain simulation program has been developed and validated against available experiments. The roll equation of motion is then simplified into a single degree of freedom model for analytical assessment. The existing single degree of freedom models in the literature are compared against the time domain simulation tool to gain an understanding of the extent to which the simplified models capture the dynamics of the phenomenon. In order to improve the roll modeling, a new approach is suggested to overcome some of the limitations of the existing models.
This new model is then investigated using two analytical approaches, one from the theory of nonlinear dynamical systems and the other from stochastic dynamics to come up with two independent measures of stability. Both of these measures are used to demonstrate their potential as a design criteria which can be used by a ship designer. A comparison of the two methods for a variety of cases is undertaken to demonstrate the similar trends they exhibit
Collision Avoidance for Autonomous Surface Vessels using Novel Artificial Potential Fields
As the demand for transportation through waterways continues to rise, the
number of vessels plying the waters has correspondingly increased. This has
resulted in a greater number of accidents and collisions between ships, some of
which lead to significant loss of life and financial losses. Research has shown
that human error is a major factor responsible for such incidents. The maritime
industry is constantly exploring newer approaches to autonomy to mitigate this
issue. This study presents the use of novel Artificial Potential Fields (APFs)
to perform obstacle and collision avoidance in marine environments. This study
highlights the advantage of harmonic functions over traditional functions in
modeling potential fields. With a modification, the method is extended to
effectively avoid dynamic obstacles while adhering to COLREGs. Improved
performance is observed as compared to the traditional potential fields and
also against the popular velocity obstacle approach. A comprehensive
statistical analysis is also performed through Monte Carlo simulations in
different congested environments that emulate real traffic conditions to
demonstrate robustness of the approach.Comment: 28 pages, 30 figure
Navigating the Ocean with DRL: Path following for marine vessels
Human error is a substantial factor in marine accidents, accounting for 85%
of all reported incidents. By reducing the need for human intervention in
vessel navigation, AI-based methods can potentially reduce the risk of
accidents. AI techniques, such as Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL), have the
potential to improve vessel navigation in challenging conditions, such as in
restricted waterways and in the presence of obstacles. This is because DRL
algorithms can optimize multiple objectives, such as path following and
collision avoidance, while being more efficient to implement compared to
traditional methods. In this study, a DRL agent is trained using the Deep
Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm for path following and waypoint
tracking. Furthermore, the trained agent is evaluated against a traditional PD
controller with an Integral Line of Sight (ILOS) guidance system for the same.
This study uses the Kriso Container Ship (KCS) as a test case for evaluating
the performance of different controllers. The ship's dynamics are modeled using
the maneuvering Modelling Group (MMG) model. This mathematical simulation is
used to train a DRL-based controller and to tune the gains of a traditional PD
controller. The simulation environment is also used to assess the controller's
effectiveness in the presence of wind.Comment: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference in Ocean
Engineering (ICOE2023
AI on the Water: Applying DRL to Autonomous Vessel Navigation
Human decision-making errors cause a majority of globally reported marine
accidents. As a result, automation in the marine industry has been gaining more
attention in recent years. Obstacle avoidance becomes very challenging for an
autonomous surface vehicle in an unknown environment. We explore the
feasibility of using Deep Q-Learning (DQN), a deep reinforcement learning
approach, for controlling an underactuated autonomous surface vehicle to follow
a known path while avoiding collisions with static and dynamic obstacles. The
ship's motion is described using a three-degree-of-freedom (3-DOF) dynamic
model. The KRISO container ship (KCS) is chosen for this study because it is a
benchmark hull used in several studies, and its hydrodynamic coefficients are
readily available for numerical modelling. This study shows that Deep
Reinforcement Learning (DRL) can achieve path following and collision avoidance
successfully and can be a potential candidate that may be investigated further
to achieve human-level or even better decision-making for autonomous marine
vehicles.Comment: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference in Ocean
Engineering (ICOE2023
Comparison of path following in ships using modern and traditional controllers
Vessel navigation is difficult in restricted waterways and in the presence of
static and dynamic obstacles. This difficulty can be attributed to the
high-level decisions taken by humans during these maneuvers, which is evident
from the fact that 85% of the reported marine accidents are traced back to
human errors. Artificial intelligence-based methods offer us a way to eliminate
human intervention in vessel navigation. Newer methods like Deep Reinforcement
Learning (DRL) can optimize multiple objectives like path following and
collision avoidance at the same time while being computationally cheaper to
implement in comparison to traditional approaches. Before addressing the
challenge of collision avoidance along with path following, the performance of
DRL-based controllers on the path following task alone must be established.
Therefore, this study trains a DRL agent using Proximal Policy Optimization
(PPO) algorithm and tests it against a traditional PD controller guided by an
Integral Line of Sight (ILOS) guidance system. The Krisco Container Ship (KCS)
is chosen to test the different controllers. The ship dynamics are
mathematically simulated using the Maneuvering Modelling Group (MMG) model
developed by the Japanese. The simulation environment is used to train the deep
reinforcement learning-based controller and is also used to tune the gains of
the traditional PD controller. The effectiveness of the controllers in the
presence of wind is also investigated.Comment: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference in Ocean
Engineering (ICOE2023
Development of a Blended Time-Domain Program for Predicting the Motions of a Wave Energy Structure
Traditional linear time-domain analysis is used widely for predicting the motions of floating structures. When it comes to a wave energy structure, which usually is subjected to larger relative (to their geometric dimensions) wave and motion amplitudes, the nonlinear effects become significant. This paper presents the development of an in-house blended time-domain program (SIMDYN). SIMDYN’s “blend” option improves the linear option by accounting for the nonlinearity of important external forces (e.g., Froude-Krylov). In addition, nonlinearity due to large body rotations (i.e., inertia forces) is addressed in motion predictions of wave energy structures. Forced motion analysis reveals the significance of these nonlinear effects. Finally, the model test correlations examine the simulation results from SIMDYN under the blended option, which has seldom been done for a wave energy structure. It turns out that the blended time-domain method has significant potential to improve the accuracy of motion predictions for a wave energy structure