Nonlinear Low-level Controller Design for an Autonomous Surface Vehicle

Abstract

Autopilots are widely used in modern marine crafts; they can help skippers maneuvering their vehicles as desired. This paper presents an approach for controlling the heading and the speed of an ASV, which are designed using Lyapunov theory. The proposed autopilot is developed according to a vessel dynamic model with three degrees of freedom which is inspired from Fossen's model. The developed heading controller is validated by simulation to prove its effectiveness.