Fully automatic boom towing by unmanned ships: Experimental study

A commonly used technique for oil spill response is to use two or more ships towing a boom. Our research proposes fully automated operations based on unmanned ships and a computer-based planning system. The system will carry on a complete autonomous operation, requiring only the position of the oil-spill and to push a start button. The paper describes the steps of the research already accomplished, which involves computer modeling and experimental studies. The experiments started with scaled ships and now are based on real scale zodiacs. Boom towing is a peculiar task, which require specific control strategies.