ROS-free running system, Towing Tank for Manoeuvres in Shallow Water, Ostend: System snapshot 2022/11/14

The Towing Tank for Manoeuvres in Shallow water has been completed in 2020. Awaiting the completion of the towing carriage, a stand-alone state-of-the-art free running system has been developed. This tender was won by Kapernikov, an IT specialist who developed the software and hardware. The free running system is capable of knowing the position of the ship in the tank, based on lidar, IMU and camera technology. The position feedback is given as input to control algorithms, which return rudder and propeller setpoints. The system as a whole runs as a ROS – Robot Operating System – environment. This report gives on overview of the ‘as-in’ at the end of 2022, where not all work has been delivered by Kapernikov. However, a demoversion is available, which is shown to potential clients and project partners and fully described in this report. As the system is a work-in-progress, with possible extensions to the current project scope, learning points and possible actions are included in this document.