Fault Monitoring and Fault Recovery Control for Position Moored Tanker

This paper addresses fault tolerant control for position mooring of a shuttle tanker operating in the North Sea. A complete framework for fault diagnosis is presented but the loss of a sub-sea mooring line buoyancy element is given particular attention, since this fault could lead to mooring line breakage and a high-risk abortion of an oil-loading operation. With significant drift forces from waves, non-Gaussian elements dominate forces and the residuals designed for fault diagnosis. Hypothesis testing need be designed using dedicated change detection for the type of distribution encountered. In addition to dedicated diagnosis, an optimal position algorithm is proposed to accommodate buoyancy element failure and keep the mooring system in a safe state. Furthermore, even in the case of line breakage, this optimal position strategy could be utilised to avoid breakage of a second mooring line. Properties of detection and fault-tolerant control are demonstrated by high fidelity simulations.