PREDICTIVE PERTURBATION CANCELLING FOR SEAKEEPING IMPROVEMENT OF A FAST FERRY

Fast ships have speed limitations due to vertical motions. These motions induce sea-sickness, degrading the comfort of passengers. The research considers a fast ferry with transom flaps and a T-foil. A suitable control must be found to move these actuators to counteract the effect of waves in the most effective way. As a result of the research already done, models of the ship and the actuators have been developed. With these models, a simulation environment has been established. Different controllers can be tested on this environment. To get a reference, a study of PID control has been accomplished. Due to the characteristics of the problem, predictive control was supposed to be a better solution. A development of predictive control has been done for this case and tested on the environment. The results for 20, 30 and 40 knots shows good improvement over the PID reference.