Research on Thrust Distribution Control Strategy of Ship Electric Propulsion System Based on Model Predictive Control

The Internet of Vessels (IoV) is an extension of the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT) to the shipping industry. One of the ultimate goals of ship networking is to realize the intellectualization of ships on the basis of the development of computer and intelligent control technology. The control field of intelligent ships is a hotspot of current research. Power propulsion systems, whether they are propellers or other high-power loads, tend to change dramatically in power consumption when operating in a naturally unpredictable marine environment. A thrust allocation strategy based on model predictive control (MPC) for dynamic power consumption is proposed in this paper. The power consumption is adjusted by coordinating the thrusters so as to offset the fluctuation of the entire power grid caused by the load changes of other electrical equipment of the ship. On the premise of reducing the load change, the overall power consumption of the system is not increased, and the ship speed and position deviation are effectively controlled. Finally, the experiments are carried out on a semi-physical simulation platform to verify the effectiveness of the thrust allocation algorithm.