Maneuvering of towed interconnected marine systems

Abstract Recent developments in maneuvering control of marine surface vessels have shown promising results. In this paper maneuvering of a towed body is addressed. The body may be actuated by a connection to a towing vessel or by local control forces. Actuation by connection forces are performed by tracking the towing vessel along a desired position reference. The desired position for the towing vessel is calculated from a desired force acting on the towed body and utilization of the connection's characteristics. Bandwidth limitations are discussed, and a combined solution with local actuation is proposed.