Predictor Design for Altitude Control of a Seaweed Harvester

In this paper, the predictor design, for altitude control of a seaweed harvester, is investigated. The harvesting system consists of a vessel and a suspended harvester device, the altitude of which is controlled by a winch. The control approach of Gallieri and Ringwood (2010), including a feedforward action, which requires a single step disturbance prediction, is investigated further, focusing on the disturbance prediction, for noisy sensors. The prediction is performed using AR and ARMA models, identified online, by using the Recursive Least Squared with Forgetting Factor (RLSFF) algorithm and the Kalman Filter (KF). The dependance between the error spectrum and the quality of the control is shown, and the prediction performances are evaluated, using an FFT-based criterion, oriented to the feedforward application. The control performances are then evaluated, and the results are compared to Gallieri and Ringwood (2010).