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DYNAMIC POSITIONING “Vessels working in shallow waters, especially those supporting walk-to- work operations, require different system solutions compared to traditional oil and gas vessels operating in deeper waters.” – Lauri Tiainen,

Director Thrusters and Propulsion

Control Systems, Wartsila Marine

Wärtsilä has introduced new technologies, such as the WST-E thruster family, launched in 2024, designed speci? cally for specialized shallow-water applications. (Wärtsilä’s

WST-E embedded electric steerable thruster.)

DP is gaining prominence in vessels involved in offshore wind projects.

Image courtesy Wärtsilä Image courtesy Wärtsilä

Wärtsilä has also developed its patent-pending OPTI-DP explains these models encode the behavior of the ship and the simulation tool and thruster allocation logic that provides thrusters into a format which the control system can use to detailed insights into thruster-to-thruster and thruster-to-hull proactively “understand, plan and decide” the most ef? cient interactions. Conventional methods for assessing accurate DP control strategies, instead of only acting in a reactive way capability calculations have become increasingly challenging based on conventional feedback control.

as offshore operations move further from shore and as the ves- This is especially bene? cial in dynamic situations when the sels serving them become larger and more complex. OPTI-DP setpoint or weather changes or when there is a need for more allows the simulation of environmental operating conditions, complex dynamic maneuvers such as dynamic track control with independent wind, wave and current directions, if de- or simultaneous turning and moving. However, it is also still sired, plus the ability to simulate multiple failures. bene? cial for energy-ef? cient control in steady situations due

As well as enabling safe and smooth operation, ABB Abil- to being able to use the most ef? cient thruster angles, instead ity Marine Pilot Control uses speed-dependent hydrodynamic of using inef? cient angles for prolonged periods (e.g. for sev- models of the ship and its thrusters to increase the energy ef- eral hours). Ship and actuator dynamics are nonlinear, says ? ciency of DP operations. Kalevi Tervo, Corporate Executive Tervo, and linear model-free approaches struggle to control

Engineer and Global Program Manager, ABB Marine & Ports, these kinds of systems ef? ciently.

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