Automatic monitoring and control of cutter suction dredger

Dredger is the most important equipment in port construction and waterway reclamation projects. This paper presents a complete scheme for monitoring and control of cutter suction dredgers. The proposed scheme has introduced a hierarchical structure; in the topmost level a knowledge based system is designed to realize overall optimization, coordinated control and fault handling; in the process control level a couple of controllers are designed. This paper gives detailed introduction to the design of the knowledge processing mechanism, and also the control algorithms for the slurry concentration and slurry velocity, these are the most important aspects in dredging operations. Implementation examples on newly constructed dredgers are finally presented. Software is developed to control the hydraulic driven movements, engine system and also the slurry transportation system. Overall optimization and fault processing tasks are also carried out by software developed. Experiment results carried out on site are presented and compared in the last; it is verified through actual operations that the proposed monitoring and control scheme can achieve acceptable performance; a much smoother dredging process is achieved.