Conventional ships are rarely the focus of research projects on autonomous shipping. Nevertheless, the shipping companies are very interested in reducing fuel consumption. This paper proposes a gradual approach towards ship automation which starts with the intelligent assistance of common manual steering by means of a Maneuver Assistance System (MAS). The MAS displays a manually improved manoeuvre plan and the future motion based on the current actuator commands. These two assistance functions contribute to a more conscious use of actuators which can significantly reduce power consumption. For further automation, the improved manoeuvre plan is converted into a trajectory by forward simulation, which is then used by a control system. The control system includes feed-forward and feedback control as well as an allocation system based on a simplified dynamic motion model. A cascaded structure is used, where an outer track controller provides velocity and heading commands to an inner velocity and heading controller. The paper presents the necessary framework and the application of this approach to the digitised German research vessel DENEB with the aim to gradually introduce and realise automatic manoeuvring. Results from manual and assisted manoeuvres with the DENEB are analysed and compared. Finally, first results of automatic berthing with the vessel in the port of Rostock are presented.

传统船舶很少成为自主航运研究项目的重点。尽管如此，航运公司对降低油耗非常感兴趣。本文提出了一种逐步实现船舶自动化的方法，该方法首先通过机动辅助系统 (MAS) 对普通手动转向进行智能辅助。MAS 显示手动改进的机动计划和基于当前执行器命令的未来运动。这两个辅助功能有助于更有意识地使用执行器，从而显着降低功耗。为了进一步自动化，改进后的机动计划通过正向模拟转换为轨迹，然后由控制系统使用。控制系统包括前馈和反馈控制以及基于简化动态运动模型的分配系统。使用级联结构，其中外部轨道控制器向内部速度和航向控制器提供速度和航向命令。本文介绍了必要的框架和这种方法在数字化德国研究船上的应用DENEB旨在逐步引入并实现自动操纵。分析和比较了DENEB手动和辅助操作的结果。最后，介绍了在罗斯托克港与船舶自动靠泊的初步结果。