Automated propulsion control

Propulsion systems that power the ships of today's navies require some level of operator input. These inputs include manually starting and stopping propulsion engines and adjusting the throttle, which commands the speeds on the engines that power the ship. Ultimately, the job of the operator is to ensure that the ship safely travels at a desired speed. This objective can be achieved without much human interaction, but with the implementation of an automated propulsion controller that is presented in this work. The automated propulsion controller uses hybrid control theory to automatically achieve both the continuous and discrete control objectives of which the operator is usually responsible. The approach presented includes an integrated hybrid controller, which applies the outputs of the continuous control algorithms as inputs to the discrete logic and the outputs of the discrete logic are inputs of the continuous control algorithms. Various continuous control approaches are explored before a rather simplified control approach is implemented. The discrete control logic is designed using a Petri net approach with the objective to align the ship to its optimum configuration. The hybrid controller is modeled, along with a ship propulsion system, to verify its desired functionality and to ensure that the primary control objectives are achieved. In multiple tests, the automated propulsion controller successfully achieved its desired objectives.