Simulation to adjust the draft of RO-RO pontoon

Abstract. Floating pontoon berthing facilities are used by RO-RO ships and ferries to provide temporary or semi-permanent docking and loading/unloading capabilities. In order to accommodate ships having various freeboards, especially during operating heavy weights, it may be necessary to adjust the draft of the pontoon. In this article, the authors propose a software for calculating the draft of a RO-RO pontoon that retrieve, process and transmit data for the operations of adjusting the draft using of a programmable logic controller. The RO-RO pontoon we are referring to has actually a manual operation of the ballast installation. The software is implemented and simulated using the Codesys application. By introducing the command system, the work performed by the human operator is automatically facilitated, reducing the number of workers, decreasing the risks following the wrong maneuvers performed by the operator. This study establishes the foundations for future experimental procedures.