Hardware-In-the-Loop Simulation for Development of Fin Stabilizer

Abstract

A ship cruising in the ocean oscillates continuously due to wave action. In order to reduce the ship’s roll, we developed a fin stabilizer as an anti-rolling device for a 500-ton-class high-speed marine vessel. During the development phase, it was necessary to set up control gains for the motion and hydraulic systems and assess the effectiveness of the anti-rolling performance on the ground. For this reason, a Target Simulator, which simulated the ship’s motion, was given operator inputs such as the engine telegraph and waterjet deflection angle, and generated roll using a one-degree-of-freedom motion base. Hardware-In-the-Loop Simulation (HILS) was performed using the Target Simulator in order to confirm the various logics of the developed fin stabilizer, select initial control gains, and estimate the anti-rolling performance. In conclusion, it was confirmed that HILS was very helpful to develop the fin stabilizer because it could reduce the number of sea trial tests that were needed and could find many malfunctions in the factory a priori.