Concept of ‘Sail by Wire’ controller for a ship’s propulsion system from an unmanned ship perspective

Abstract

The intention of this paper is to present the idea of total ship control called the Supervisory ‘Sail by Wire’ Control System. As a part of it, there is an optimal controller of the ship’s propulsion plant presented in this paper. The paper focuses on the integration of four control subsystems of ships: navigation, propulsion, auxiliary and deck machinery systems, hull structures and cargo handling equipment. Such a controller can be build also on the base of conventional, fuzzy, or neural principles. Critical situations are detected, warned in advance is given about them, and they are reported to the ship's operator. The analytical results and recommendations as well as real vessel conditions will be recorded and post-processed. The intelligent integration of acquired data from subsystems will ensure that the control commands and actions compromise the multi-effects of a vessel's dynamics and operation. While performing accurate regulation and governing functions, this control system should have the capability of identifying and compensating failures during the ship's operation. The ‘Sail by Wire’ Supervisory Controller delivers a comprehensive study and a new idea to common European strategies and decisions for tracking issues in shipping in critical situations.