SAMCoT - Annual Report 2015

SAMC

• ANNUAL REPORT 2015

WORK PACKAGE 5 (WP5)

The research activity of WP5 includes a number of different activities. One of them is

pursuing the next generation motion control systems for floaters. This will be more

proactive in complex environments and be able to “see”, predict, and better act on the

surrounding environment. The research necessitates instrumentation of some of the

needed surveillance tasks of ice management. Of particular interest is global load

monitoring and also remote ice drift tracking and forecasting with hazard detection. The

first enables more reactive motion control of the vessel and improved understanding of

the ice conditions. The second reduces the number of helicopter flights and the disposal

of electronic equipment and batteries into the ocean, since physically placing tracking

buoys on the ice will not be needed.

Another important activity is the use of inertial measurement units (IMUs) strategically

placed on a ship. A time-frequency decomposition method has been developed, and

detection algorithms will be used to identify unusual ship-ice interaction events and

changes in the ice drift direction.