Fritz Thomsen

Fritz has worked for many years as a research associate at the Maritime Center of the Flensburg University of Applied Sciences. He has a diploma in mechanical engineering and a doctoral degree in materials science. His academic career is characterized by mathematical modeling and numerical methods, which led him to his current field of activity.

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Presentation

Simulation results from an MPC approach to CTV docking

The results of a recently completed research project are presented: a model predictive control (MPC) approach is introduced to address the challenge of automated maneuvering of underactuated vessels in waves. To demonstrate the suitability of MPC, the docking of a crew transfer vessel (CTV) to a wind turbine tower is automated in a virtual environment. GPU computing is used to enable the real-time capability of the approach, which essentially consists of a 6-DoF hydrodynamic model and the Nelder-Mead method. In our approach, the trajectory of the CTV is not explicitly planned but results from the shape of the target function.