• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.867-874
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• 2021

The IoT (Internet of Things) technology is rapidly becoming an important consideration in many engineering fields in the current 4th industrial era. In recent years, the concepts of digital shipbuilding and smart factories have been adopted as trends in shipyards. However, there is active interest in research on implementing autonomous driving in autonomous vehicles and airplanes, which is currently available in commercial form in a limited capacity. The present study is regarding the path-tracking performance of a boat to accomplish an autonomous driving mission using a flight controller (FC) and real-time kinematic (RTK) global positioning system (GPS) based on an open-source Ardupilot; an actual sea test is also performed using this system on a calm lake. The boat's mission is to evaluate the maneuverability of the self-driving process to a specific point and returning to the home position. For a given speed, the difference between the preset mission trajectory and actual operational trajectory was analyzed, and a series of studies were conducted on the applicability of the system to ships. In addition, the movements and maneuverability of the OmniX-type hull with four propellers were investigated, and the driving path-tracking performance was observed to increase by a maximum of 48%.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.38-46
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• 2021

In the era of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the interest in autonomous ship technology is increasing as high-tech technologies are being increasingly utilized throughout the industry. Therefore, we conducted a basic study on autonomous ships. In particular, a passenger ship model was produced and an autonomous navigation system was established by applying the ardupilot used for drones. The possibility of automatic control of the autonomous ship operations was confirmed by executing various voyage plans using the built model ship. In the performance test for maintaining the course the model ship could not follow the designated course straight and sailed up to 5.4 m away from the course while navigating in a zigzag (S-shape); however, after the parameters were modified, the deviation distance was reduced to a maximum of 1.8 m. In the turning performance test, the maximum diameter of the turning sphere was found to be approximately 9.3 m, but no significant change could be confirmed even after the parameters were modified. However, the results of our tests on slowing down the ship before arriving at the WP confirmed that the diameter of the turning sphere was reduced to a maximum of approximately 3.2 m. In order to evaluate the stopping performance, the last scheduled stopping position of all experiments was compared with the actual stopping position of the model ship and it was confirmed that the model ship stopped at a point at least 0.4 m and a maximum of 6.2 m away from the stopping position. In the future, improvement of course stability, turning performance, and stopping performance is required through modification and supplementation of various parameters. Moreover, a study on automatic berthing of the model ship through automatic control is planned.