Sea state estimation using response data from a container vessel

Abstract

In the strive of introducing autonomy in to the shipping industry there is a need of fast and reliable sea state estimation procedures which can capture wave parameters. Based on recent research by U. D. Nielsen proposing a brute force approach to estimate the sea state estimation, this thesis will evaluate the approach by using full scale measured data along with simulated vessel motions. By using 8100 timeseries of motions the procedure will be evaluated based on the reliability and level of uncertainty of the estimation. The results indicates that the proposed procedure is promising even though it does not work as a fully general approach and is still in the need of modifications for each vessel. The research has also shown promising results regarding the transformation from encounter to absolute domain taking the Doppler effect in to account. The conclusion drawn is that the proposed procedure is promising and that future validation and fine tuning is needed using a wider approach with numerous different vessel types including full scale measured motion data, before it can be used in real applications on board vessels.