AdaNav – a modular control and prototyping concept for vessels with variable gear configurations

According to their tasks and relations, specialized vessels are equipped with modern steering devices like podded drives or thrusters. Such modern steering concepts substantially increase the manoeuvring capability of the vessels. However, mates are not able to handle those gears efficiently, because the relations between action and reaction are far too complex. Automation is needed to support the steering team. The industrial production of wheelhouse systems within the large spectrum of types of manoeuvring gears and their location on vessel hulls is still a hard problem. Finally, each adaptation for the navigation and track guidance system looks like an individual system production. For an easier prototyping and implementation of different steering concepts in navigation and track guidance systems for vessels, a modular concept has been applied by the University of Rostock, Center for Marine Information Systems (CeMarIS). Supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, in the joint project “Adaptive Navigation System for Ships” the control of each device was implemented into a new automation strategy for the guidance process to realize an optimal manoeuvrability in motion. At the end of the project, final tests in the Maritime Simulation Center in Warnemünde (MSCW) have demonstrated the efficiency of the developed modular control concepts.