The purpose of this paper, which was presented at a joint meeting held in London with the Nautical Institute on 1 December 1983, is to give an account of the development of Dynamic Positioning from its inception to the present day, a simple description of the principles on which it works, and makes some predictions about its future.

Dynamic Positioning (DP) has been defined in various ways. For the purpose of this paper it will be denned as ‘The ability to hold a vessel in its desired position automatically without the use of physical restraints.’ Physical restraints are ropes, cables, anchors or any other items which connect the vessel to the bottom or to a fixed structure, be it an offshore installation or quay. The word ‘automatically’ means that manoeuvring control must be achieved without manual input.