Robust and adaptive ship path-following control design with the full vessel model

The paper considers the problem of ship path-following system design based on realistic, nonlinear, full, surface ship model. The ship under consideration is an underactuated, course-unstable, nonlinear object. Since it is assumed that the ship's parameters are unknown and there are significant environmental disturbances and unmodeled dynamics, the applied design procedures combine the robust and adaptive control techniques. As the basis for controller synthesis, the adaptive output feedback linearization and H∞ optimal control techniques have been used. Simulations of the ship path-following process are provided to illustrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed control scheme.