Study on Ship Automatic Berthing System with Mooring Lines

This study describes an automatic berthing system with mooring lines. It is designed to be berthed by using mooring device on the upper deck of a ship. It is to berth once maintaining parallel with the quay by controlling both forward and aft breast lines. Berthing method is used through length adjustment of mooring lines connected between ship and quay by controlling the angular velocity and the torque of hydraulic motor in mooring device. The study is conducted under three changing conditions of draft, such as even-keel, rise of the gravity center and trim to stern. Variables affecting berthing stability are determined based on the control performance of each condition. Bond graphs method is used to model the system. Controller is designed as PID control method of reference-model algorithm. The control program is composed of synchronous control system based on the equations derived with the numerical analysis. The tank test is conducted to verify the usefulness of the control program.