DP INDUCTION COURSE

Module 8

POSITION REFERENCE
SYSTEMS

Handbook ver. 1 Tuesday 14 May 2024

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Position Reference Systems

COMMON TYPES

ACOUSTIC
MICROWAVE
TAUTWIRE
LASER
DGPS
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 Requirements of a Position
Reference System

 ACCURACY
 RELIABILITY
 STABILITY
 CONTINUITY
 COST

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 PRS Accuracy
 DESIRABLE:
 Ideally better than 0.25m Accuracy to 68%
sample
 Accuracy sustained over period of use
 Accuracy unaffected by environment

 THE ABOVE FACTORS ARE IDEALS - THE

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 PRS RELIABILITY
 Class 2 & 3 Vessels require 3 PRS OnLine
 If PRS count 2 or less, then the job may
be temporarily suspended
 Thus need for RELIABILITY
 Loss of Reliability may be due to:
 Operator errors
 Environment
 Unsuitable PRS deployment

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 PRS STABILITY
 ‘STABILITY’ - Freedom from false data “jumps”
 An Unstable PRS may result in vessel Drive-Off
 Instability should be detected by the DP PRS
Pooling, and the unstable PRS rejected
automatically

THE OPERATIVE
WORD IS “SHOULD” !

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 PRS CONTINUITY
 The DP System samples PRS inputs once per
second
 Ideally, PRS data should update at this
frequency or faster
 If update rate is slower than this, the PRS data
becomes suspect
 NOTE: Age Of Data (AOD) or “Latency” are
important values

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 POOLING OF PRS DATA
 The DP System is able to pool data from two or
more PRS to obtain the “best fit” position
 This is done by means of Variance-based weighting
 “Variance” is a measure of “spread” of successive
positions
 Weighting is inversely proportional to Variance
 The higher the weighting, the greater the influence
of that PRS on the position calculation

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 Scatter Plot
 A Scatter Plot
shows a time-
sample of data
from a positioning
system
 e.g. a sample of 60
plots taken from a
DGPS system over metres
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
a period of 1
minute may show
this pattern

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 Scatter Plot
 A measure of the
accuracy of the DGPS
Variance
positioning is the
0.75m
size of a circle
containing 68% of
the plots
 This is the
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 metres
VARIANCE or
Standard Deviation
 This circle will be of
constant radius
irrespective of the
number of samples
in the plot
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 Scatter Plot
 If the fixing from
a different FANBEAM
positioning Variance 0.5m
system is
“tighter”
indicating better
accuracy, the
Variance will be a 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 metres

smaller value
 e.g. the results
from a Fanbeam
system may be as
shown:

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 Scatter Plot
 If on the other
hand, the fixing is HPR
Variance
more scattered, this
1.7m
indicates a lower
accuracy, reflected
in the larger
Variance value
0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 metres
 e.g. the results from
an HPR system
may be as shown:

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 PRS Variance and weighting
 From the examples given, we have
the following Variance values:
 DGPS = 0.75m
 Fanbeam = 0.5m
 HPR = 1.7m 1.8
 Since weighting is inversely 1.6
proportional to Variance, these yield 1.4
the following relative weightings:
1.2
 DGPS - 0.35
 Fanbeam - 0.45 1
Variance
 HPR - 0.2 0.8
Weighting
 Note: weighting values always add 0.6
up to 1.0 0.4
 Therefore, the larger the number of
0.2
PRS, the lower will be their
individual weightings, and the 0
impact of loss of one PRS DGPS Fanbeam HPR
consequently less
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 PRS
POOLING
The “Refsys”
view

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 Reference Origin
 The first PosRef selected into the system is
known as the “Reference Origin”
 The position of this reference establishes a
datum zero for the calculation of positions
 All other PosRefs are calibrated to the position
of the Reference Origin
 Northings & Eastings on the display are offsets
from the Reference Origin
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Reference Origin
NORTHINGS &
EASTINGS ON
DISPLAY ARE THE
OFFSETS FROM THE
REFERENCE ORIGIN

REFERENCE ORIGIN

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Reference Origin
SECOND AND
SUBSEQUENT POSITION
REFERENCES ARE
CALIBRATED AGAINST
THE ESTABLISHED
REFERENCE ORIGIN

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 Reference Origin

NOTE:
If the Position Reference which is
Reference-Origin is deselected,
the location of the Reference-
Origin remains on that geographic
spot

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 Reference Origin
 It may become necessary to change the Reference Origin to a
different Position Reference System
 Procedure as follows:
 Deselect ALL PRS on the DP panel
 Wait 30 seconds until the alarm “Position Dropout” appears
 Select the PRS desired as Reference Origin
 Wait until this reference calibrated (steady lamp on the
panel)
 Select other references
 NOTE:This operation must not be conducted while the vessel
is undertaking critical work. Selection of the appropriate PRS
for Reference Origin is best completed prior to commencing
the operation
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 Position Dropout
 If all position reference systems are lost, the DP system
continues to model the PRS
 After 30 seconds without any PRS data, the DP alarms
“Position Dropout”
 Vessel positioning then continues with position data derived
from the mathematical model
 This is known as the “DR mode” or “model control”
 Vessel position will gradually deteriorate and vessel will
eventually pick up speed
 The rate of decay of the model will depend upon the
environment, also the quality of the original model

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 Geographical Reference Origin
 If the first PosRef established is DGPS then the
R-O is located on the Equator, on the Central
Meridian
 Northings and Eastings then correspond to
UTM values
 Thus, the DP becomes geographically
referenced

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 REMEMBER !
 THE BEST AND MOST RELIABLE
POSITION REFERENCE IS . . . .

THE Mark 1 EYEBALL

 Fitted in duplicate for redundancy purposes !

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