Laboratory Platforms for Dynamic Positioning — Modeling and Identification

Dynamic positioning is a challenging task in control of marine vessels, with the primary objective of maintaining a desired, predefined position of the vessel. This paper describes an overactuated laboratory platform developed at the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies with the purpose of testing control algorithms. This paper focuses on the identification of the laboratory platform. The identification method which is used is based on recording open loop step responses. Preliminary experimental results for controllable degrees of freedom are presented. The paper also describes a MOOS (mission oriented operating system) based communication structure used to control the platform.