Motion Control of an One-meter Class Autonomous Sailboat

Abstract

In order to compensate for the limitation of the endurance of electrically powered autonomous ships, a sailboat prototype was built to use natural wind power efficiently. Two actuators of the sailboat were controlled separately. The fuzzy control algorithm is used for rudder, and table look-up control method is used for the wing sail based on velocity polar prediction diagram. The specifications of the hardware system and detailed information on motion control strategy are illustrated. Subsequently, ship trial conditions and experimental results were presented. The prototype performance showed that the control strategy was feasible for such a boat. This laid the foundation for the follow-up study of the autonomous sailboat.