Determining the most rational method of automooring vessels in a navigation lock chamber

The article presents the results of a study to determine the most rational method of automatic mooring of vessels in a navigation lock chamber. The relevance of the study is due to updated regulatory requirements in the field of designing the specified shipping hydraulic structures, the need to improve the efficiency and safety of navigation, including ensuring the passage of unmanned vessels, as well as the lack of ready-made technical solutions for their installation on the structures in question. To solve this problem, the authors of the study used the method of expert assessments, which allows taking into account the opinions and experience of specialists in the field of shipping, which ensures a more objective and reasonable choice of the most rational method of automatic mooring. As a method of expert assessment, taking into account the issues under consideration, the method of point assessments was chosen. For this purpose, during the study, a survey was conducted among the involved experts, during which each of them gave his intuitionistic assessment. In this study, vacuum, electromagnetic and lever-andhinge devices are considered as methods of automatic mooring. The criteria considered include, among other things, the need to reconstruct the lock chamber, environmental friendliness, the ability to hold the vessel, the complexity of the device, and reliability indicators. As a result of collecting and processing the obtained data, it was found that the most preferable method of auto-mooring of vessels in the lock chamber is a vacuum device. The results obtained indicate the feasibility of developing and implementing vacuum auto-mooring devices on shipping hydraulic structures. The results of the study are of practical interest to specialists in the field of shipping and can be used in the design and reconstruction of navigation locks.