A comparative analysis of methods related to automatic ship berthing

Automatic berthing has been known as one of the most difficult problems in ship control. During port approach and berthing maneuvers, the ship master takes into account many factors before any maneuver action, i.e. ship speed, wind speed, wind direction, water current direction, available power, heading angle and ship response. However, many methods related to automatic berthing were developed by recent researches, such as Artificial Neural Network, Adaptive Backstepping, Nonlinear Programming and Proportional-Integral-Derivative. In this paper a comparative analysis of these methods is presented, determining the advantages and the limitations of each method.