Dynamic Positioning Software

The control software in a DP system that holds a vessel’s position and heading by continuously commanding thrusters and propellers against measured environmental forces. It runs a mathematical vessel model, a Kalman-filter state estimator fusing GNSS/DGNSS, gyro, and reference sensors, and a PID or model-predictive controller. IMO MSC/Circ.645 (1994) and the updated MSC.1/Circ.1580 (2017) set DP guidelines, with equipment classes 1 to 3 defining redundancy. IMCA M 103 and M 117 give industry practice for class and operator competence.