Dynamic positioning

Dynamic positioning (DP) is a computer-controlled system to automatically maintain a vessel's position and heading by using its own propellers and thrusters. Position reference sensors, combined with wind sensors, motion sensors and gyrocompasses, provide information to the computer pertaining to the vessel's position and the magnitude and direction of environmental forces affecting its position. Examples of vessel types that employ DP include, but are not limited to, ships and semi-submersible mobile offshore drilling units (MODU), oceanographic research vessels and cruise ships.

The computer program contains a mathematical model of the vessel that includes information pertaining to the wind and current drag of the vessel and the location of the thrusters. This knowledge, combined with the sensor information, allows the computer to calculate the required steering angle and thruster output for each thruster. This allows operations at sea where mooring or anchoring is not feasible due to deep water, congestion on the sea bottom (pipelines, templates) or other problems.

Dynamic positioning may either be absolute in that the position is locked to a fixed point over the bottom, or relative to a moving object like another ship or an underwater vehicle. One may also position the ship at a favorable angle towards wind, waves and current, called weathervaning.

Dynamic positioning is used by much of the offshore oil industry, for example in the North Sea, Persian Gulf, Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, and off the coast of Brazil. There are currently more than 1800 DP ships.

Dynamic positioning started in the 1960s for offshore drilling. With drilling moving into ever deeper waters, Jack-up barges could not be used any more and anchoring became less economical.

In 1961 the drillship Cuss 1 was fitted with four steerable propellers, in an attempt to drill the first Moho well. It was possible to keep the ship in position above the well off La Jolla, California, at a depth of 948 meters.

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