Modeling and control of a vertically tethered marine platform using an active heave compensation system

Technology movement toward deeper waters necessitates the control of vertically tethered systems that are used for installing, repairing, and maintaining underwater equipment. This has become an essential ingredient for the future success of the oil industry as the near-shore oil reservoirs are nearly depleted. Increased operation depths cause large oscillations and snap loadings in these longer cables. Research on this topic has been limited, and includes only top feedback control. The controllers developed in this thesis utilize top, bottom and combined top and bottom feedback. They are implemented on a discrete finite element lumped mass cable model. Comparison between PID, LQG and H infinity for all feedback combinations reveal that the Hinfinity controller with both top and bottom feedback has the best performance, while LQG has a more consistent and reliable performance for all feedback cases.