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Title:Review of floating object manipulation by autonomous multi-vessel systems
Authors:Z. Du, R.R. Negenborn, V. Reppa

Journal:Annual Reviews in Control

Abstract:The regulatory endorsement of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the support of pivotal shipping market players in recent years motivate autonomous vessels to start playing a significant role in the shipping industry. As the complexity and scale of the applications increase, research works gradually transform the focus from single-vessel systems to multi-vessel systems. Thus, autonomous multi-vessel systems applied in the shipping industry will be a promising research direction in the near future. One of the typical research is floating object manipulation by multiple tugboats. This paper offers a comprehensive literature review of the existing research on floating object manipulation by autonomous multi-vessel systems. Based on the prior knowledge of object manipulation problems by multi-robot systems, four typical maritime object manipulation ways are summarized: attaching, caging, pushing, and towing. The advantages and disadvantages of each manipulation way are discussed, including its typical floating object and the application scenarios. Moreover, the aspects of control objective, control architecture, collision avoidance operation, disturbances consideration, and role of each tugboat are analyzed for insight into the approaches for solving this problem. Finally, challenges and future directions are highlighted to give possible inspiration.

Reference:Review of floating object manipulation by autonomous multi-vessel systems. Z. Du, R.R. Negenborn, V. Reppa. Accepted for publication in Annual Reviews in Control, 2022. Open access.
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