SLIDING MODE CONTROL APPLIED TO OFFSHORE DYNAMIC POSITIONING SYSTEMS

The technique of Dynamic Positioning (DP) consists on keeping the position and heading of a vessel by the use of active thrusters. In Brazil, the offshore oil industry follows the recent tendency of performing several operations aided by DP systems, such as prospection, drilling, offloading and others. Currently, the DPS are based on conventional controllers (PD + Kalman Filter). This paper proposes the application of a controller based on nonlinear sliding mode control technique to the dynamic positioning of a floating vessel, as well as some simulations and experimental validation results.