Gain scheduling model predictive control for dynamic positioning of floating caissons at different draughts

This article presents a model predictive control for dynamic positioning (DP) of floating caisson at different draughts. This article focuses on the maneuvres related to the control of the spatial situation of the caisson in connexion with the final caisson reference point and the process of descending to the seabed desired location. Different models of the caisson in order to perform realistic simulations and to test the robustness of the controller are considered. A gain scheduling model predictive control (GSMPC) has been implemented, with parameter switch among four model predictive control (MPC) controllers. In this way, a specific MPC for the dynamics of each draught will be used in each caisson model corresponding to a draught. Furthermore, a Kalman filter has been implemented to remove the disturbances. Finally, in the simulations results it is compared the performance of the proposed controller with a clasic one and also it is checked how the proposed controller is able to position the system in all draughts with stability and accurate dynamic control of the system.