DP Operator Manual

Section 4 Theory of Operation

Introduction
PLUS AND MINUS CONVENTION

Rotation to port Rotation to

Anti clockwise starboard
Always Minus Clockwise
- Always Plus

Forward or North
Always plus

Plus Plus
Port or West Minus Plus Starboard or East
+ - + +
Always minus Always plus
Minus Minus
Minus Plus
- - - +

Aft or South
Always minus
Some DP systems give the operator a choice of which type of co-ordinates they wish to use.
There are two types EARTH and SHIP.

EARTH CO-ORDINATES: North, South, East and West.

SHIP CO-ORDINATES: Forward, Aft, Port and Starboard.

The operator must select which type of co-ordinates are on line in the system and care must
be exercised on some makes when requesting a vessel offset (position movement) that he is
aware of which type of co-ordinates are selected. A movement in the wrong mode could be
disastrous.

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Definition
DP systems are computerised systems that allow the vessel to be controlled in heading and
position accurately, to within a few metres or degrees. Using a system of computers, sensors,
and thrusters, utilising active thrust

Basic Forces and Motions

1. Wind, Waves, Currents, Tides, Propulsion forces.
2. The PRS, VRS, Gyros measure the vessels reaction to the forces.
3. The wind sensor measures the wind speed and direction
4. The DP calculates wind forces, and estimates sea forces
5. Forces are then calculated and applied to keep the vessel at the required position,
overcoming the environmental forces, or to move vessel as required.
6. The vessel is controlled in 3 axes of movement
Surge fore and aft
Sway athwartships
Yaw heading
7. The system measures the other motions, pitch roll and heave.

Forces acting on a vessel, and motion.

D.P. Block Diagram

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Modelling
1. The shape, and mass of the vessel is known.
2. Mass is a function of draft.
3. Known forces acting on the vessel are calculated, this includes drag if the vessel is
moving
4. These are combined with the vessels start position to define an estimated position,
heading.
5. The system also predicts position heading, and speed.
6. The DP system then calculates the forces it needs to apply to maintain the required,
heading, speed, and position setpoints.
7. The actual forces applied are used to update the model
8. The DP system compares demands to feedbacks and will alarm if difference exceeds
preset limits.
Wind Model
1. The only environmental force we are measuring for a normal DP system is the wind.
2. The wind model consists of three tables of coefficients, one for surge, one for sway
and one for yaw directions, covering the vessel 360.
3. When we know where the wind is coming from we can pick out the coefficients for
that direction and calculate the force for the three axis as the coefficient multiplied by
the square of the wind speed. f=c*v2.

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4. There will normally be only one set of wind coefficients, but on vessels changing
draught drastically during the operation there can be sets for different draughts.
Mass
1. The mass is derived from the draught input. This can be measured, calculated by a
stability calculator or entered manually.
2. In older DP systems this is normally a fixed value in the software, which means that
the vessel has to keep the correct draught during the DP-operations. If not the vessel
will oscillate if it is floating higher in the water (lower mass), or react slowly if it is
floating lower in the water (higher mass).
Drag forces
1. The vessel model is, as mentioned earlier, calculating the vessel speed and direction
of movement.
2. The water will resist this movement, e.g. setting up a force in the opposite direction of
the motion. This force is called the drag force. The drag force is an important factor in
the calculation of an accurate vessel speed.
3. The drag force is calculated in the same manner as the wind force where the
calculated vessel speed is input to the model, and by multiplying the coefficient by the
square of the vessel speed we find the drag force.
Error compensation force.
1. Forces acting on the vessel that are not measured need to be calculated
2. This may be called Current or environmental force
3. This is done by means of a slowly varying low pass filter, which is controlled by the
difference between the predicted position and heading and the measured position
and heading.
4. The output from the filter, the error compensation force, is added to the wind force as
an external force and will effect the speed calculations and thus the predicted position
output from the vessel model.
5. The output from the filter will change until the predicted and actual positions agree.
The DP-system has now adjusted itself so that the total force input to the vessel
estimator is equal to the actual forces acting upon the vessel.
6. The error compensation force not only contains sea current and wave drift forces, but
also any other unmeasured forces acting on the vessel such as cable or pipe
tensions. It also includes any input errors such as wind measurement, wind model,
calculated thruster forces.
7. The updating of the error compensation force is only possible when we receive
accepted position measurements.
8. The low pass filter has a filter constant of 30 minutes. This means that the DP-system
needs 30 minutes in Manual or Auto mode with good position measurements before it
has calculated the error compensation force. However, after 15 minutes it is quite
accurate.
Quick Learn
1. If the unmeasured Forces acting on the vessel are changing rapidly, this may affect
positioning
2. In newer systems there usually a way of changing the time constant on the low pass
filter
3. In Kongsberg this is called quick current, in Alstom environmental force fast learn

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Calculation of the force demand.
The calculation of forces required and hence, thrusters settings depends on the mode of
operation
Manual mode.
1. The force demand comes from movement of joystick, and or heading control (if
fitted)
2. The controls are linked to potentiometers that send control signal to the DP
controllers that generate the thrusters commands.
3. If heading control is selected then heading priority will apply
4. If no heading control is engaged thrust should be developed so as not to
cause yawing forces.
5. High gain should give 100% thrusters forces, low or reduced gain should give
50% thrusters forces.
6. It may be possible to set up the joystick to automatically counter any calculated
environmental forces
7. It may be possible to set the joystick to act in a progressive mode rather than
linear (see diagram below)

Manual force demands

90

80

70

60
Low Progressive
Tonnes force

50 Low Linear
High Progressive
40
High Linear
30

20

10

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
% Joystick deflection

8. It is possible to have some axes in manual; control and some in Auto control

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Auto or DP Mode
1. The force demand for axis under automatic control is the sum of three different forces
calculated individually, namely FEED FORWARD, DAMPING and GAIN.
2. Feed forward is the sum of wind and error compensation force.
3. With Damping the DP system calculates the vessels speed, and direction, then
calculates and applies the forces necessary to stop the vessel.
4. Gain is not the same as the Joystick gain. It depends on the distance to the set point
( heading or position).
5. The greater the separation between the set point and the vessel, the more force is
applied.
6. High, low and medium gains are available they may be set in all axes or individually.
7. In high gain the vessel will deviate less from set points, but use more thrust
8. Whether in manual or auto, the system will not apply 100% of thrusters out put, to use
a thrusters to full capacity it is necessary to use an over-ride button (if fitted), or use
the individual thrusters controls

Forces when Changing position, or heading set point.

1. The system applies different forces when a heading or position change is applied.
2. The new set point is shown on the display
3. Forces are generated as tons per meter or tons per
degree.
4. If the move was 500m and force 2 tons per metre then
1000 tons of force would be needed, and the engines and
thrusters would probably explode
5. To avoid this, a Carrot or instantaneous set point is
displayed.
6. The carrot moves towards the new set point, it
accelerates up to the set heading or motion speed, at a
preset rate.
7. The DP computer calculates the force to apply using the
distance from the vessels present position to the carrot to
calculate thrusters forces to apply.
8. As the carrot approaches the new set point it decelerates at the preset rate to
stop on the new set point

Thruster Allocation logic.

1. The forces calculated are in three directions surge sway and yaw.
2. The system knows where the thrusters are, if they are on or not and which are
enabled.
3. It also knows which mode the thrusters are in.
4. Using this information the forces are turned into thrusters commands of RPM, pitch
azimuth angle etc.

Online Consequence Analysis

1. The Online Consequence Analysis function continuously performs an analysis of
the vessels ability to maintain its position after a predefined, worst-case failure
during operation.
2. Possible consequences are based on the actual weather conditions, enabled
thrusters and power plant status.

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3. Typical worst-case single failures are :
Failure in the most critical thruster
Failure in one thruster group (if any)
Failure in one power bus section
4. If the consequence of the predefined failure is loss of position, it is reported to the
operator via the alarm system. The failure situations that are analysed are in
accordance with the requirements for DP Class 2 and 3 operations.

OPERATIONAL MODES
The following is a typical list of Operational Modes currently available.

Before an operational mode will work some requirements must be met

Sufficient thrusters are selected or available to select to support the mode
A gyrocompass is selected or available to select
A PME is selected or available to select

Joystick Manual Heading (JSMH)

JSMH mode allows single lever control of all selected thrusters. In this mode, the inputs to the
system are provided by the operator alone.

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Thrust can be applied to the vessel in fore/aft and port/starboard directions. The joystick
controls the thrust on the vessel in the direction in which the joystick is pointing. The
magnitude of the thrust is controlled by the amount the joystick is pushed forwards or
backwards. The thrust can either move the vessel, or hold it stationary against the
environmental forces. Heading is controlled by the turn control knob/Joy-stick , which rotates
the vessel about its centre of rotation, using the selected thrusters.

Dynamic Positioning (DP)

DP mode maintains the vessel in a fixed position relative to a fixed reference point, while
maintaining a fixed heading. In this mode, the vessel position is controlled by a PME and the
heading controlled by a gyrocompass.

The system receives the vessel's heading from the gyrocompass, and the vessel's position
from a PME. When DP mode is selected, the current position and heading of the vessel are
taken as the reference position and heading. The vessel's thrusters control the vessel to
maintain the position and heading. The operator may change the position and heading of the
vessel using the console display facilities (Change position and change heading).

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Dynamic Positioning, Minimum Power
DP Minimum Power mode maintains the vessel's position relative to a fixed reference point,
whilst minimising the vessels port/starboard thrusters demands resulting from the net weather
forces on the vessel. This mode is also sometimes called Weathervaning.

In this mode, the position of the vessel is controlled by a PME. The vessel's position is
measured using a PME, and the thrusters are controlled to maintain the vessel at this
position, as for DP mode. The vessel heading is then controlled so as to minimise the power
used by the thrusters.
The operator should be aware that should net weather change then heading will change to
that required to minimize thruster use, there will be no input required by the operator, distance
relative to a fixed object will change

WARNING ALARMS

The Message System

1. There is a built in fault checking system
2. Alarms are announced visually, and audibly, they are also recorded on a printer
3. There 3 kinds of messages Alarms ,Warnings, and Information
4. Alarms mean there has been a failure, or a limit has been exceeded, and some action
is required. Audible, and visual waring
5. Warnings, mean there has been an occurrence which if ignored could lead to a
failure, no audible alarm, visual alarm only.
6. Information messages, advise of noteworthy conditions, there are no audible or visual
alarms. These will go from display if the message clears.
7. Alarms and warnings that are in-active need to be acknowledged before they are
removed from the display

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