Analysis of manoeuvring characteristics through sea trials and simulations

In recent years, Autonomous Surface Vehicles have secured the focus of major research and industrial initiatives around the world. Following this trend in the wake of fourth industrial revolution of oceans, Marine Autonomous Surface Ships (MASS) have become the focus of numerous research. In order to shift from conventional ships to autonomous transportation, manoeuvring data collected through real-ship trials have to be available, and analysed. In this study, manoeuvring characteristics of a real ship were studied over a period of three years, data were collected and analysed to identify changes of manoeuvring characteristics over time. Real-ship data were then compared with simulation data to validate a manoeuvring simulator program. Through the real-ship experiments, not only the simulation results were validated, but also the possibility of predicting ship manoeuvrability using simulations in controlled environments was identified. In addition, the importance of accumulation of manoeuvring data in helping future designs of ships with similar characteristics is identified.