MARINE VESSEL MODELS IN CHANGING OPERATIONAL CONDITIONS—A TUTORIAL

This tutorial paper provides an overview, from a systems perspective, of the topic of motion dynamics of surface marine vessels and models. It presents a classification of parametric models currently used to describe marine vessel dynamics. The models presented have validity only for particular vessel operational conditions (VOCs), and a large number of work has already been dedicated to system identification of these models. Due to the increase of complexity of vessels and the operations they perform, however, more applications of system identification are needed to obtain to models valid across different VOCs. The main aim of the paper is therefore to highlight the essential characteristics of marine system dynamics to provide a background for researchers and engineers attempting future applications of system identification to marine systems.