Optimization-based motion planning for trawling

This work presents an optimization-based motion planning system for trawling operations. The formulation makes use of simplistic physical descriptions of the vessel and fishing gear together with catch dynamics of sweeping across moving fish schools. The objective of the optimal control problem is to maximize harvest, while ensuring both feasible maneuvers and well-behaved gear characteristics. The problem is transcribed into a large-scale nonlinear programming problem and solved in a receding horizon fashion using simultaneous collocation. A numerical simulation illustrates the system’s usefulness.