Real-time prediction on the slurry concentration of cutter suction dredgers using an ensemble learning algorithm

Cutter suction dredgers (CSDs) are widely used in various dredging constructions such as channel excavation, wharf construction, and reef construction. During a CSD construction, the main operation is to control the swing speed of cutter to keep the slurry concentration in a proper range. However, the slurry concentration cannot be monitored in real-time, i.e., there is a "time-lag effect" in the log of slurry concentration, making it difficult for operators to make the optimal decision on controlling. Concerning this issue, a solution scheme that using real-time monitored indicators to predict current slurry concentration is proposed in this research. The characteristics of the CSD monitoring data are first studied, and a set of preprocessing methods are presented. Then we put forward the concept of "index class" to select the important indices. Finally, an ensemble learning algorithm is set up to fit the relationship between the slurry concentration and the indices of the index classes. In the experiment, log data over seven days of a practical dredging construction is collected. For comparison, the Deep Neural Network (DNN), Long Short Time Memory (LSTM), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (GBDT), and the Bayesian Ridge algorithm are tried. The results show that our method has the best performance with an R² of 0.886 and a mean square error (MSE) of 5.538. This research provides an effective way for real-time predicting the slurry concentration of CSDs and can help to improve the stationarity and production efficiency of dredging construction.