OFFICER TRAINIG CENTRE

of
Gdynia Maritime University

DP OPERATOR BASIC COURSE

MODULE 5:
Position Reference System Handling,
Charts projections, UTM

Copyright © 2008 by Jaroslaw Cydejko

 Position Coordinates
• Any position coordinates which
describe out location have any
meaning only when user knows
what convention is used;

• Lattitude (φ) and Longitude (λ)

coordinates, which are
commonly used in navigation
(called geografical coordinates)
are in fact geodetic coordinates
because they describe location
of the point on the elipsoid
surface (not sphere);
N 54º31’ E 018 º33’
(ellipsoid A)
≠ N 54º31’ E 018 º33’
(ellipsoid B)
The question is:
What is the shape and definition of the elipsoid to which the coordinates are
refering to?
 Geodetic Datums
Local ellipsoids

Elllipsoid is defined
by: semimajor,
flattering and centre

WGS 84(World Geodetic System of 1984): Earth Centered; Earth Fixed Nominal GPS
elipsoid
Geodetic Datums
Geodetic Datums
Ellipsoid, Geoid
and Earth surface

To plot the chart: the ellipsoid

surface has to be presented on
the plane.
This is obtained by various
methods of projection
 Chart projections
NORMAL TRANSVERS OBLIGUE

PLANE

CYLINDRICAL

CONICAL
 Mercator and Transverse Mercator projection

TRANSVERSE
MERCATOR MERCATOR
• preserves right angles between meridians and pararells; • preserves right angles between meridians and pararells but
meridians and parrarels are curves
• preserves shape but changes areas;
• chart scale is fixed only along lines parrarel to tangent
• chart scale is fixed only along pararells; meridian;
• distortion increases with lattitude; • distortion increases with distance from central meridian;
• not designed to chart high lattitudes; • no problem with charting high lattitudes;
• Rumb Line is a straight line; • Rumb Line is not a straight line;
• Great Circle is a curve – closest distance on chart is • Great Circle is a curve – closest distance on chart is
not the closest distance in reality not the closest distance in reality
 Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM)

Projection definition:

To avoid distortion along paralles, the globe is

divided into 60 zones (6 deg of Long each).
For each zone the projection is done with cylinder
tangent to the middle meridian (Central Meridian)
In fact the scale along Central Meridian is
CENTRAL MERIDIAN EVERY 6deg
(.....15W, 9W, 3W, 3E, 9E, 15 E....)
established as 0.9996
i.e the projection is done on the cylinder
intersecting the ellipsoid aprox. 180 km
MERCATOR both sides of the Central Meridian.
In that way the distortion of distances is
minimaized.
 Universal Transverse Mercator

Coordinates notation convention:

MERCATOR
The rectangular, equally divided grid overlayed over the projected chart:
horizontal coordinate (Eastings):
East from Central Meridian - 500 000 plus distance on the chart from CM in metres
West from Central Meridian - 500 000 minus distance on the chart from CM in metres
vertical coordinate (Northings):
North hemisphere - distance on the chart from Equator in metres
South hemisphere – 10 000 000 minus distance on the chart from Equator in metres
Universal Transverse Mercator
• parallel and meridians are curves, so it is
not easy convertion between grid
coordinates and geodetic coordinates;
• grid north and true north coincident only
on the Central meridian;
• meridian convergance – angle between
meridian and grid lines in particular area;
• maximum convergance at poles – 3 deg;
• grid coordinates are always positive values
(origin of the grid outside 6deg band);
• coordinates always increasing to East and to
North, grid unit – 1 metre,
• used notation- Eastings (first) – 6 digits;
Northings - 7 digits
E 345 678/ N 7 456 234
• designed to be used on small areas only
due to direction and distance distortions;
• the only advantage is the similarity to
Cartesian reference frame;
 Universal Transverse Mercator -zones

ZONE NUMBERS (6° BANDS, Central Meridian in middle)

Universal Transverse Mercator –zones Europe
Meridian zones are divided into
zone belts which has a letter
designator.
For South Norway the belt was
extended:
zone belt 32 V: N 56°- N 64°
E 003°- E 012°
Additionally zone belts are divided
into squares 100 km by 100 km
indicted by two letters: e.g. MP,
KM, PQ etc.
Short coordinates may be used:
32V MP 3641/34079 (2 first digits are
described by belt/square ID)

However now the full UTM

coordinates are commonly used
to avoid any umbiguities.
(only zone No. must be known)
Variety of Position Reference Systems used for
Dynamic Positioning

Problem to face are:

LASER
SYSTEMS • define the common reference frame;

• calibrate each system within

common reference frame;

• obtain, one blended estimate based

on all measurements;

• prevent system from false,

not reliable measurements
 Global and Local Position Reference
Systems
Position information from position-reference systems may be received by the
DP system in many different forms:
• Global position-reference systems such as GPS provide position
information as Latitude and Longitude in a geodetic coordinate system.
The applicable datum must be known (for example: WGS84, ED87).
• Some global position-reference systems provide positions in the UTM
projection (a flat surface projection, defined by a UTM zone and north and
east distances from the 0-point of this zone. The applicable datum must be
known (for example: WGS84, ED87).
• Local position-reference systems such as HPR provide positions in local
Cartesian coordinates (defined by two-dimensional measurement of the
north/south (X) and east/west (Y) distances from a locally defined reference
origin, such as the position of a transponder).

Usually, whatever types of position-reference systems are enabled, all position

input are converted into a geographic system using WGS84 as a “system datum”.
 PRS Handling When first position reference system is calibrated to
system the common reference frame (usually-North
Defining the Reference Origin UP)
Reference frame (grid) origin is placed in the
VESSEL position of the transponder TP1 used as first.
ORIGIO
Vessel Origio coordinates are calculated by correcting
S
the raw measurement with sensor offsets (offset has to
125 be established in common frame, so heading, pitch and
+ 25 roll has to be known).
100
O Raw mesurements of any new position reference
system are converted to common reference frame.
SENSOR OFFSETS
-5
Raw measuremnets of Sensor S position:
50 TP 2 TP 1 (+70,+125); TP2 (-55,+75)
When TP1 calibrated – Ref. Origin defined
Vessel Origo(TP1)=Raw Sens. Pos.–Offsets
displayed to operator - (+75, +100)
TP 1
70 75 125
REFERENCE
ORIGIN (0,0)
Convertion Correction (TP2)= V.Origio (TP1)+ Offsets-Raw Sens. Pos.(TP2)=
= (+75, +100) + (-5,+25) – (-55,+75) = (+125, +50) added to each new measurment
Above correction is calculated for each, new calibrated system.
 PRS Handling - Reference Origin
• The defined coordinate system remains as the reference origin until all position-
reference systems are de-selected and a new position-reference system is selected
as the reference origin.
• Selecting a particular position-reference system as the reference origin does not
mean that the DP system treats it as being better or more reliable than any
other position-reference system.
• It concerns only the location of the reference origin. The reference origin selected
should be the one most appropriate to your operational requirements.
• In Kongsberg DP OS the reference system defining the reference origin is marked
with an asterisk.
• Recalibrating the origin reference system will give new coordinates for the
reference origin system (can vary from zero).
• While recalibrating any reference system, the actual system offset from model
estimated position is reset to 0, by doing that we simply accept that model is more
correct than position reference system. If this is not true we implement error into
Dynamic Positioning, which can cause vessel shift realatively to seabed or
installation;
 PRS Handling - Recalibration Problem
WITHOUT
RECALIBRATION RECALIBRATION
Initial A B A B
moment
Ref.Sys B A B A B
drifts +5
Ref.Sys A
A B A B
recalibrated
Ref.Sys B A B A B
come back -5
Ref. A drifts +10 B B
A A
Ref. B drifts -5
Ref.Sys B B A
B A
recalibrated
Ref. A drifts -10 A A B AT THIS STAGE
B Ref.A and Ref.B raw
Ref. B drifts +5
positions are same as at
(initial moment 0 5 10 15 20 25 0 5 10 20
15 initial moment 25
restored)
7.5 m SHIFT
Due to not proper recalibration vessel was shifted 7.5 metres. Where is the problem?
 PRS Calibration and Pooling
Calibration:
First PRS:
• DP waiting for 3 succesive fixes;
• if all 3 succesive fixes within 10 m, system calibration OK.
(Note: that that’s mean, that vessel cannot move fast during initial calibration;
more stable vessel – more accurate initial calibration)
Next PRSs:
• DP waiting for 10 succesive fixes;
• if all 10 succesive fixes within 10 m, system calibration OK.
(calibration limits can be changed by operator)

PRS Pooling:
• standard deviation (SD) is calculated for every reference system;
• the blended position is calculated as weighted average of all system where,
the weight of components depends on the system’s Standard Deviation;
RefSys View and PRS Weighting
System Eastings Std. Dev Weight
Name
GPS 1 20.5 m 2.0 m 0.33
GPS 2 21.0 m 2.0 m 0.33
HPR 15.0 m 4.0 m 0.16
Art 18.0 m 4.0 m 0.16

Blended Eastings Calc. :

System Eastings Weight Weighted
Name Eastings
GPS 1 20.5 m x 0.33 6.77 m
GPS 2 21.0 m x 0.33 6.93 m
HPR 15.0 m x 0.16 2.40 m
Art 18.0 m x 0.16 2.88 m

Weighted Sum
(blended Eastings) = 18. 98 m
 Raw Positions and Filtered Position
For each position-reference system, the capital letter with
no circle around it represents the last raw position
measurement for this system.

For each position-reference system, the small inner circle

with a capital letter inside represents the filtered
position measurement for this system.

In simplified explanation, the filtered position is the average of last ten raw postion measurements.
When a new fix appears, its value is added to previous 9 and filtered position is updated.

In weighting procedure, the filtered positions are taken to obtain the blended position.

For each position-reference system, the outer circle (dashed) represents the standard
deviation for this system. Size of the circle changes with every new measurement.
The popular interpretation of SD circle is:
the circle which containes 68% of measuremnts observed in selected period of time.
RefSys View – Useful Data
Position
These are numerical values for the calibrated position (for each
reference system) as used by the DP system.

Transponder Coordinates
These are numerical values for the origin of the particular
reference system, for example the position of an HPR or LBL
transponder or an Artemis Fix antenna.
If the PRS acting as Reference Origin has coordinates different than
(0,0), that’s mean: initial calibration was inaccurate or origin
recalibration was made (recalibration problem exists). In K-pos DP the
fix origin can be implemented.

Raw Position
These are numerical values of raw (uncompensated and
untransformed) position measurements (for each reference
system) as received by the DP system.

RefSys Raw Data SD

These are trend plots. Useful tool to observe system
performance in the past.
 Position Reference Systems – validation tests
• FREEZE TEST rejects repeated measurements. If the variation in the measured position is
less than a system set limit over a given period of time, the position-reference system is
rejected.

• VARIANCE TEST monitors the measurement variance and compares the variance value
with a calculated limit.

• PREDICTION TEST detects sudden jumps or large systematic deviations in the measured
position. The limit for the prediction test is a function of the estimated position in the
Vessel Model and the actual measurement accuracy.

• DIVERGENCE TEST gives a warning of systematic deviations and/or slow-drift (before

the system is rejected by the prediction test).

• MEDIAN TEST detects position measurements that differ from the median position value
with more than a predefined limit. The test is mainly designed to detect slowly drifting
position-reference systems.

If the results of the prediction, median and variance tests suggest that the position measurements from a
reference system are not accurate, then that system’s measurements are not used.
 Position Reference Systems
FREEZE TEST
If a position-reference system has an internal error causing the same measurements to be continuously
sent to the Vessel Model, the system could, if no precautions were taken, mistake the data for good
and stable measurements.

FREEZE TEST - „live” assesment

The DP system treats repeated reports of the same position from one position- reference
system with caution. The position-reference system is monitored and its input rejected if the
variation in its position measurements is less than a predefined limit over a given time
period.

The following alarm message is displayed:

Reference position frozen
You should disable the frozen position-reference system.

By configuration, the freeze test is disabled for some position-reference systems (usually
GPS/Artemis) due to the resolution in the data from these position-reference systems.
 Position Reference Systems
VARIANCE TEST
The DP system calculates a variance for each of the position-reference systems in use.
Variance = Sum of squared errors/Number of measurements

VARIANCE TEST – long term assesment

The variance test detects if the variance in the measured values exceeds the set limits.

LIMIT 1 – expected acurracy of the individual system (set by operator);

LIMIT 2 – expected variance of position information, set/calculated for all systems in use
(usually 3 times variance of the more accurate system at moment). The minimal
value for rejection is defined – aprox. 3 x 2.25 m = 6.75 m.

If limit 1 exeeded, warning If limit 2 exeeded, warning displayed:

displayed: Reference high variance
Reference high noise The position-reference system is rejected
Disable the position-reference system if the event of high variance is
The position-reference system is
recurring. No corrective actions are necessary if the problem is
not rejected. intermittent only.
 Position Reference Systems
PREDICTION TEST
PREDICTION TEST – short-term assesment (refferes to single maesurement)
The prediction test detects sudden jumps in the measured position, and immediately rejects those that
lie outside the limits.
The limit for the Prediction test is a function of the
actual measurement accuracy (3 times St.Dev of the
best system).
Minimum Prediction Error Limit is defined as
aprox. 4 m to avoid rejecting accurate position-
reference systems.

Prediction Test
(if failed)
generate Warning:

Reference Prediction
Error

The single measurement is

rejected.
 Position Reference Systems
Divergance and Median Test
DIVERGANCE TEST – assembly assesment for two systems

The purpose of the test is to give an early indication of systematic errors before the
position-reference system is rejected by the prediction test.

This is a slow drift test - detects when measurements from one position-reference
system differ from the other(s). The limit is taken as 70 % of the prediction error
limit.Test generates warning only (no rejection):
Reference high offset
Examine which position-reference system is drifting. Recalibrate or disable the system with high offset.

MEDIAN TEST – assembly assesment for three and more systems

The Median test is intended to reject slowly drifting position-reference systems.

Unlike the prediction test, the median test is independent of the DP model.
For Median test the median position is computed from the filtered measurements.
 Position Reference Systems
MEDIAN TEST
The Median Test Limit is 80 % of the
When filtered position of any system drifts outside
Minimum Prediction Error Limit.
the limit, the Warning comes up:
Reference median rejected
The operator may choose to reject an inaccurate position-
reference system, or to only have a warning displayed.

If measurements from more than one

position-reference system are outside the
Median Test Limit, only the system with
the longest distance to the Median
position is rejected.
This system will take part in the Median
testing in the next sample (unless it is
disabled by the operator).
MEDIAN
POSITION
 Position Reference Systems
MEDIAN TEST
In a situation with several drifting position-reference systems, disabling of a reference system may
lead to a sudden change in the Median position,
 Position Reference Systems
Operational Considerations
• correct arrangement and handling of position reference systems is he crutial aspect of
effective and safe dynamic positioning;

• relative position references should be used at installations that are not fixed in position, the use
of relative and absolute position reference systems can cause conflicts;

• problems may occure when two position system are used; in that case pooling procedure
can create the umbiguity: drifting system may drag over the good one;

• by using three systems the implementation of vouting logic is possible, which can make
the PRS pooling process more reliable;

• with three PRSs the DPO has to be aware about common-mode failure problem i.e when 2 of 3
systems exerience the common failure, they can win over the third (good) one;

• wherever possible, if multiple position references are in use, they should be independent of each
other and should be based on different principles;
 Position Reference Systems - Operational Considerations
IMCA M 103 „Guidelines for The Design and Operation of DP Vessels”
DIVING
„For diving work at least three references should be on line and at least two should be of a
different type. Two DGPSs using different correction stations may be usable but could still be
subject to common failure in the satellite section of the system. Re-plumbing a taut wire, when it is
one of the three position references, does not constitute a violation of the above requirements, if
such action is completed as quickly as is safe and practicable and the station keeping was stable
when the taut wire was deselected prior to re-plumbing.”

DRILLING
„When connected or installing the BOP at least three position references should be
continuously on line. These position references should be configured to minimise the possibility of
common mode failure. For shallow water (<500m) the expectation is for acoustics, DGPS and a
taut wire. In deepwater where only acoustics and DGPS can provide the accuracy and update rate
needed, two independent acoustic and DGPS inputs can be shown to be adequate”

• In modern DP systems while dual DGPS is used, it can be configured with

„Reduced weight”, so the system for weighting purposes „see” two DGPSs as one sensor.

• Additionally, the „Monitoring Online” function can be helpful.

 Position Reference Systems –
Common Failure Mode

3 P.R.S.
DEPLOYED:
a) ARTEMIS
b) TAUTWIRE
c) HPR

HPR RESULT:
TRANSPONDER
DEPLOYED ON ARTEMIS rejected:
CLUMP WEIGHT - The only good P.R.S
vessel excursion

CLUMP
WEIGHT

TAUTWIRE DEPRESSOR WEIGHT HPR TRANSPONDER MOVING

DRAGGING SLOWLY WITH IT
 Position Reference Systems
(IMO MSC/Circ. 645 Guidelines for Vessels with Dynamic Positioning System)
3.4.3 Position reference system
.1 Position reference systems should be selected with due consideration to
operational requirements, both with regard to restrictions caused by the manner of
deployment and expected performance in working situation.
.2 For equipment classes 2 and 3, at least three position reference systems should be
installed and simultaneously available to the DP-control system during operation.
.3 When two or more position reference systems are required, they should not all be of
the same type, but based on different principles and suitable for the operating
conditions.
.4 The position reference systems should produce data with adequate accuracy for the
intended DP-operation.
.5 The performance of position reference systems should be monitored and warnings
provided when the signals from the position reference systems are either incorrect
or substantially degraded.
.6 For equipment class 3, at least one of the position reference systems should be
connected directly to the back-up control system and separated by A.60 class
division from the other position reference systems.