Use of simulation-based performance metrics on the evaluation of dynamic positioning controllers

This paper explores the versatility of performance metrics in setting up, evaluating and comparing dynamic positioning controllers. Given the nature of subsea mission with highly nonlinear vehicle models and unmodeled disturbances, performance-based evaluations can improve the understanding of the system behavior in different scenarios and allow better decisions regarding mission strategies before testing the real system. This analysis, however, can only be extensively done with the use of simulations, using the same strategy used for the improvement of safety and performance conditions in other research areas, such as flight control.