Steering Control of a Ship in a Canal (Part II)

Abstract

In the previous report [1], the transfer function approach to the ship manoeuvring in canals was introduced with particular reference to course stability and automatic steering. Also a simple mathematical model of ship behaviour was presented. In this report we introduce a real time ship handling simulator to study the behaviour of a ship in canals, taking account of the human operators incorporated. The ship handling simulator is a very useful tool to examine the behaviour and training of the ship operators and also provide technical information on the design and the development of the waterways. We studied the learning process of the new ship handlers as well as the human ability to control ships in canals under difficult conditions. At the same time the ship handling simulator is used in place of a full scale ship to carry out Zig-zag manoeuvre from which we can estimate the parameters of the simplified mathematical model of any given ship. We find that, the effect of learning the skill is remarkable and the training could be done firstly on the simulator. The personal differences is very small once one get the skill. In order to get the skill, sound understanding and continuous training are necessary. The simplified mathematical model parameters of a given ship in a canal can be determined by carrying out Zig-zag manoeuvre of small amplitude, say 5°/1.5° Zig-zag test.