Experimental investigation on a cabin-suspended catamaran in terms of motion reduction and wave energy harvesting by means of a semi-active motion control system

A novel concept catamaran equipped with a suspended cabin, named Wave Harmonizer Type 4 (WHzer-4), is proposed and evaluated. The mass-spring-mass system is constructed by mounting four sets of suspensions in-between the cabin and the twin-hull. Two sets of dual motor/generators (M/Gs) are attached on the center beam of the cabin's deck fore and aft. Each shaft-end of the dual M/Gs is connected to the twin-hull through a rack-pinion gear unit. In this way the vertical relative motion between the cabin and the twin-hull can be transferred into the rotational motion of the M/Gs, and vice versa. A semi-active motion control system, which contains a proportional-integral (PI) controller, is designed and applied to each of the dual M/Gs for the aim of absorbing wave energy under the condition of suppressing the local vertical velocity of the cabin as much as possible. A 1/5 scale model ship with a length of 1.6 m is built, and a forced-oscillation bench test is implemented to validate the performance of the control system. Then, a series of towing tank tests is carried out in regular head waves. The heave and pitch responses of the cabin, those of the twin-hull and the corresponding wave energy capture width ratio (CWR) at five control scenarios and two reference scenarios are investigated. Discussion on the results of the tank test shows that the motion reduction of the cabin and the wave energy harvesting can be achieved simultaneously at a few wave conditions. However, at other conditions, although noticeable amount of wave energy is harvested, motion reduction of the heave and pitch of the cabin could not be obtained at the same time. It is suggested that varying the gain settings of the PI controllers according to the location of the controllers may improve the effectiveness of the proposed control system.     

Experimental study on hydrodynamic performance of SWATH vessels in calm water and in head waves

An extensive experimental investigation on four SWATH hull forms has been conducted in calm water and in regular waves at University of Naples Federico II. Calm water tests have been analyzed in the range of Froude number Fr_T from 0.1 to 0.6. For all four SWATH configurations at the speed, corresponding to Fr_T 0.32, the behaviour in regular waves has been tested. The results of heave, pitch and vertical accelerations are presented in nondimensional form as RAO. For the “most promising” SWATH #4 configuration, a set of stabilizing fins have been designed and an active stabilization system has been developed. The developed SWATH#5 has been tested in calm water on three displacements in the range of Fr_T from 0.1 to 0.65. The dynamic wetted surface has been identified and the residual resistance coefficient C_R as well as R_T/Δ are reported. Seakeeping tests have been performed in regular head sea and in head and following irregular sea at Fr_T = 0.50. The conditions for the occurrence of dynamic longitudinal instabilities have been identified. The results allows to comment the effect of slenderness of struts and SWATH’s immersed bodies on resistance and seakeeping and concerns the applicability of SWATH concept to small craft.     

Feedback control system for blow-out preventer positioning

During the drilling of ultra-deep-water subsea petroleum wells, a blow-out preventer (BOP), a piece of safety equipment, must be assembled on the wellhead. The BOP is suspended using the drilling riser during the wellhead approach operation, and the riser's top end is connected to the floating platform rig. This article presents a feedback control system for the automatic approach of the BOP to the wellhead. Compared to state-of-the-art controls, ours does not require ancillary thrusters installed alongside the riser nor inclination sensors atop of the drilling riser. Additionally, our proposed control embeds a closed-loop dynamic positioning system, thus retaining the characteristics of the original control system and adding an extra closed-loop. This eases implementation of the BOP approach control to an existing platform. To calculate the optimal gains for the BOP controller, we assume a linear system for the riser, including only the pendulum-shape. The simulation is carried out using nonlinear models for both riser and floating platform. We assume an International Towing Tank Conference standard semi-submersible platform, coupled with a 3000-m free-hanging vertical riser for the time-domain simulation. The results show the BOP tracking to be a step-shaped input signal under current and wave loads. A discussion of the performance of feedback control under different environmental loads is also included.     

Experimental Study of a Command Governor Adaptive Depth Controller for an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle

Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) are increasingly being used in advanced applications that require them to operate in tandem with human divers and around underwater infrastructure and other vehicles. These applications require precise control of the UUVs which is challenging due to the non-linear and time varying nature of the hydrodynamic forces, presence of external disturbances, uncertainties and unexpected changes that can occur within the UUV’s operating environment. Adaptive control has been identified as a promising solution to achieve desired control within such dynamic environments. Nevertheless, adaptive control in its basic form, such as Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC) has a trade-off between the adaptation rate and transient performance. Even though, higher adaptation rates produce better performance they can lead to instabilities and actuator fatigue due to high frequency oscillations in the control signal. Command Governor Adaptive Control (CGAC) is a possible solution to achieve better transient performance at low adaptation rates. In this study CGAC has been experimentally validated for depth control of a UUV, which is a unique challenge due to the unavailability of full state measurement and a greater thrust requirement. These in turn leads to additional noise from state estimation, time-delays from input noise filters, higher energy expenditure and susceptibility to saturation. Experimental results show that CGAC is more robust against noise and time-delays and has lower energy expenditure and thruster saturation. In addition, CGAC offers better tracking, disturbance rejection and tolerance to partial thruster failure compared to the MRAC.     

Wave energy conversion under constrained wave-by-wave impedance matching with amplitude and phase-match limits

This paper investigates an approach to limit the fullness of ‘tuning’ provided by wave-by-wave impedance matching control of wave energy devices in irregular waves. A single analytical formulation based on the Lagrange multiplier approach of Evans [1] is used to limit the velocity amplitude while also limiting the closeness of the phase match between velocity and exciting force. The paper studies the effect of the present technique in concurrently limiting the device velocity and the required control/actuation force. Time domain application requires wave-profile prediction, which here is based on a deterministic propagation model. Also examined in the time domain is the effect of possible violation of the displacement constraint, which for many designs implies impacts at hard stops within the power take-off mechanism. Time domain simulations are carried out for a 2-body axisymmetric converter (with physical end-stops) in sea states reported for a site off the US east coast. It is found that the approach leads to effective power conversion in the less energetic sea states, while as desired, considerable muting of the optimal response is found in the larger sea states. Under the assumptions of this work, the end-stop collisions are found to have a minor effect on the power conversion. The present approach could be used to guide the design of power take-off systems so that their displacement stroke, maximum force, and resistive and reactive power limits are well-matched to the achievable performance of a given controlled primary energy converter.     

海洋空间规划管控平台建设的总结思考

新时期国家着力构建陆海统筹、区域统筹、城乡统筹的国土空间规划体系,为更好的服务国土空间规划体系与海岸带专项规划的建立实施,满足新形势下海域海岛管理的新要求,深化落实主体功能区制度,本文对已经建立的海洋空间规划管控平台进行了总结。海洋空间规划管控平台主要目标是实现海洋空间“一张图”、海洋主体功能区监测评估、海洋空间综合决策,主要功能包括多规分析与一张图、海洋主体功能区监测评估、海洋空间分区辅助编制与审查、海洋空间符合性判断等.     

陀螺全站仪在隧道测量中的应用研究

随着我国经济和科技的蓬勃发展,隧道工程建设也呈现出规模化和多元化的趋势。本文首先总结了我国公路隧道、铁路隧道和水下隧道的增长状况;然后归纳了隧道测量中平面控制网的布设方法;最后通过分析发现:通过陀螺全站仪加测陀螺边来传递方位基准,可有效提高隧道贯通精度。     

天文CMOS相机测试平台及控制系统的实现

CMOS相机是一种重要的固体成像设备?随着科研级CMOS相机的性能不断提高,现已广泛应用于科研领域?新真空太阳望远镜的成像设备也使用CMOS相机?因此建立一个天文CMOS相机测试系统?对于新购CMOS相机的验收以及现有CMOS相机的定期检测和维护有十分重要的意义。介绍了CMOS相机测试平台的硬件组成,并针对实际测试中对设备控制的需求,以及利用控制器对相应的设备直接控制,提出了基于TCP/IP协议以及串口通信的设计方案?利用C#编程语言设计了一套多线程并行的控制系统软件?实现各设备在局域网内的远程并行控制。通过对设备的运行测试,结果表明,系统能良好地控制各设备的正常运行?满足测试系统集成控制的需求.     

小区域消费级无人机倾斜摄影像控点布设及建模精度研究

像控点布设是无人机倾斜摄影施测阶段的重要环节,直接决定后期三维实景模型的精度。本文面向校园等小区域环境,利用消费级单镜头多旋翼无人机航摄系统获取影像数据,重点设计了不同像控点布设方案,基于全自动数据处理系统进行空三加密及三维模型的构建,并对模型成果进行精度分析,为实际工作中小区域像控点的布设提供建议和指导。     

磁浮交通试验线压力管道直线度的测量方法研究及应用

目前,国内外对于磁浮交通真空压力管道直线度测量问题的研究较少。本文结合西南交通大学在建的真空磁浮高速列车试验装置,提出了一种真空压力管道直线度测量方法。该方法在管道内建立高精度=维控制网,依据三维控制网测量采用圆曲线拟合方法确定各节管道的圆心坐标,并采用直线拟合方法分析整个管道的直线度。最后依据上述方法编制程序对实测数据进行了处理分析,验证了方法的可行性和正确性,可为今后真空磁浮压力管道的建设提供技术参考。