Nonlinear Backstepping Ship Course Controller

A ship, as an object of course control, is characterized by a nonlinear function describing the static maneuvering characteristics. The backstepping method is one of the methods that can be used during the designing process of a nonlinear course controller for ships. The method has been used for the purpose of designing two configurations of nonlinear controllers, which were then used to control the ship course. One of the configurations took dynamic characteristic of a steering gear into account during the designing stage. The parameters of the obtained nonlinear control structures have been tuned to optimise the operation of the control system. The optimisation process has been performed by means of genetic algorithms. The quality of operation of the designed control algorithms has been checked in simulation tests performed on the mathematical model of a tanker. The results of simulation experiments have been compared with the performance of the system containing a conventional proportional-derivative （PD） controller.

Adaptive robust dissipative designs on straight path control for underactuated ships

An adaptive robust control algorithm for ship straight path control system in the presence of both modeling uncertainties and the bounded disturbances is proposed. Motivated by the backstepping approach, the algorithm is developed by using the dissipation theory, such that the resulting dosed-loop system is both strictly dissipative and asymptotically adaptively stable for all admissible uncertainties. Also, it is able to steer an underactuated ship along a prescribed straight path with ultimate bounds under external disturbances induced by wave, wind and ocean current. When there are no disturbances, the straight path control can be implemented in a locally asymptotically stable manner. Simulation results on an ocean-going training ship ‘YULONG＇ are presented to validate the effectiveness of the algorithm.

Path following control of underactuated ships based on nonswitch analytic model predictive control

A path following controller is developed for underactuated ships with only surge force and yaw moment available to follow a predefined path.The proposed controller is based on nonswitch analytic model predictive control.It is shown that the optimal control law for a nonlinear path following system with ill-defined relative degree is continuous and nonsingular.The problem of ill-defined relative degree is solved.The path-following ability of the nonlinear system is guaranteed.Numerical simulations are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control law.

Improved filtered-ε adaptive inverse control and its application on nonlinear ship maneuvering

The drawbacks of common nonlinear Filtered-ε adaptive inverse control （AIC） method, such as the unreliability due to the change of delay time and the faultiness existing in its disturbance control loop, are discussed. Based on it, the diagram of AIC is amended to accommodate with the characteristic of nonlinear object with time delay. The corresponding Filtered-ε adaptive algorithm based on RTRL is presented to identify the parameters and design the controller. The simulation results on a nonlinear ship model of ＂The R.O.V Zeefakker＂ show that compared with the previous scheme and adaptive PID control, the improved method not only keeps the same dynamic response performance, but also owns higher robustness and disturbance rejection ability, and it is suitable for the control of nonlinear objects which have higher requirement to the maneuverability under complex disturbance environment.

Robust Position Observer for Sensorless Direct Voltage Control of Stand-Alone Ship Shaft Brushless Doubly-Fed Induction Generators

The aim of this paper is to investigate an adaptive sensorless direct voltage control(DVC)strategy for the stand-alone ship shaft brushless doubly-fed induction generators(BDFIGs).The proposed new rotor position observer using the space vector flux relations of BDFIG may achieve the desired voltage control of the power winding(PW)in terms of magnitude and frequency,without any speed/position sensors.The proposed algorithm does not require any additional observers for obtaining the generator speed.The proposed technique can directly achieve the desired DVC based on the estimated rotor position,which may reduce the overall system cost.The stability analysis of the proposed observer is investigated and confirmed with the concept of quadratic Lyapunov function and using the multi-model representation.In addition,the sensitivity analysis of the presented method is confirmed under different issues of parameter uncertainties.Comprehensive results from both simulation and experiments are realized with a prototype wound-rotor BDFIG,which demonstrate the capability and efficacy of the proposed sensorless DVC strategy with good transient behavior under different operating conditions.Furthermore,the analysis confirms the robustness of the proposed observer via the machine parameter changes.

Design of robust fuzzy controller for ship course-tracking based on RBF network and backstepping approach

This study presents an adaptive fuzzy neural network (FNN) control system for the ship steering autopilot. For the Norrbin ship steering mathematical model with the nonlinear and uncertain dynamic characteristics, an adaptive FNN control system is designed to achieve high-precision track control via the backstepping approach. In the adaptive FNN control system, a FNN backstepping controller is a principal controller which includes a FNN estimator used to estimate the uncertainties, and a robust controller is designed to compensate the shortcoming of the FNN backstepping controller. All adaptive learning algorithms in the adaptive FNN control system are derived from the sense of Lyapunov stability analysis, so that system-tracking stability can be guaranteed in the closed-loop system. The effectiveness of the proposed adaptive FNN control system is verified by simulation results.

Fuzzy Optimal Control Design for Ship Steering

This paper presents a method to design a control scheme for nonlinear systems using fuzzy optimal control.In the design process,the nonlinear system is first converted into local subsystems using sector non linearity approach of Takagi Sugeno(T S)fuzzy modeling.For each local subsystem,an optimal control is designed.Then,the parameters of local controllers are defuzzified to construct a global optimal controller.To prove the effectiveness of this control scheme,simulations are performed using the mathematical model of Esso Osaka tanker ship for set point regulation with and without disturbance and reference tracking.In addition,the simulation results are compared with that of a PID controller for further verification and validation.It has been shown that the proposed optimal controller can be used for the nonlinear ship steering with good rise time,zero steady state error and fast settling time.

Application of H~∞ control in rudder/flap vector robust control of a ship's course

Given the uncertainty of parameters and the random nature of disturbances that effect a ships course, a robust course controller should be designed on the basis of rudder/flap vector control. This paper analyzes system uncertainty, and the choice of weighting functions is also discussed. When sea waves operate on a ship, the energy-concentrating frequency varies with the angle of encounter. For different angles of encounter, different weighting functions are designed. For the pole of a nominal model existing in an imaginary axis, the bilinear-transform method is used. The "2-Riccati" equation is adopted to solve the H∞ controller. A system simulation is given, and the results show that, compared with a PID controller, this system has higher course precision and more robust performance. This research has significant engineering value.

Cooperative Multi-Agent Control for Autonomous Ship Towing Under Environmental Disturbances

Among the promising application of autonomous surface vessels(ASVs)is the utilization of multiple autonomous tugs for manipulating a floating object such as an oil platform,a broken ship,or a ship in port areas.Considering the real conditions and operations of maritime practice,this paper proposes a multi-agent control algorithm to manipulate a ship to a desired position with a desired heading and velocity under the environmental disturbances.The control architecture consists of a supervisory controller in the higher layer and tug controllers in the lower layer.The supervisory controller allocates the towing forces and angles between the tugs and the ship by minimizing the error in the position and velocity of the ship.The weight coefficients in the cost function are designed to be adaptive to guarantee that the towing system functions well under environmental disturbances,and to enhance the efficiency of the towing system.The tug controller provides the forces to tow the ship and tracks the reference trajectory that is computed online based on the towing angles calculated by the supervisory controller.Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can make the two autonomous tugs cooperatively tow a ship to a desired position with a desired heading and velocity under the(even harsh)environmental disturbances.

Dynamical Correction of Control Laws for Marine Ships’ Accurate Steering

这个工作的目的是为海洋的车辆自动驾驶仪设计的分析合成问题。尽管有为一个解决方案的众多的已知的方法，提及的问题由于某些动态条件，要求和限制的一张广泛的人口的存在是很复杂的，它必须被一条驾驶控制法律的适当选择满足。这份报纸的目的是简化合成的过程，提供精确的与控制系统的理想的动力学驾驶。这里建议的途径基于允许去耦的特殊统一多种用途的控制法律结构的用法合成进更简单的特别优化问题。特别地，这结构包括一个动态修正者在海波浪骚乱的行动下面为车辆鈥檚 运动支持理想的特征。作为结果，为修正者设计的一个专业化新方法被建议提供精确驾驶或在轮船的精确驾驶并且节俭的驾驶之间的一宗交易。这个方法担保关于航行的实际环境的控制法律的某个灵活性；它的相应拐弯处能在实时被认识到在上。

Design and Stability Analysis of Fuzzy Switched PID Controller for Ship Track-Keeping

The fuzzy switched PID controller which combines fuzzy PD and conventional PI controller is proposed for ship track-keeping autopilot In this paper. By using rudder angle, the whole voyage is divided into two operating regimes which named transient operating regime and steady operating regime respectively. The fuzzy PD controller is employed in transient operating regime for increasing response, reducing overshoot and shorting transition time. And conventional PI controller is used to improve the stable accuracy in steady operating regime. The global controller is achieved by fuzzy blending of all local controllers. Routh stability criterion is utilized to obtain the stability condition of closed-loop system. The simulation results show the effectiveness of proposed method.

A Direct Compensative Robust Optimal Control (DCROC) Law for Ship Straight-line Track-keeping

A linear quadratic optimal direct track-keeping control law was proposed based on first-order Nomoto nominal model. Furthermore, based on Lyapunov stabilized theory, considering parametric uncertainty from variations of ship speed and disturbances uncertain from wind, wave and sea current, a direct compensative robust optimal control (DCROC) law was developed. It can guarantee closed-loop system globally and uniformly converge to a remained set. High accuracy and robustness were achieved. By introducing some nonlinear blocks, closed-loop system achieves global and uniform asymptotical stableness. Numerical simulations on a Mariner Class ship are presented to validate the control law.

Sliding-mode control of path following for underactuated ships based on high gain observer

A nonlinear robust control strategy is proposed to force an underactuated surface ship to follow a predefined path with uncertain environmental disturbance and parameters.In the controller design,a high-gain observer is used to estimate velocities,thus only position and yaw angle measurements are required.The control problem of underactuated system is transformed into a control of fully actuated system through adopting an improved line-of-sight(LOS) guidance law.A sliding-mode controller is designed to eliminate the yaw angle error,and provide the control system robustness.The control law is proved semi-globally exponentially stable(SGES) by applying Lyapunov stability theory,and numerical simulation using real data of a monohull ship illustrates the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed methodology.

Disturbance Observer Based Sliding Mode Controller Design for Heave Motion of Surface Effect Ships

In order to damp the heave motion of surface effect ships(SESs),a sliding mode controller with a disturbance observer was designed.At first,a disturbance observer was proposed to estimate the unknown time-varying disturbance acting on SESs due to waves.Then,based on the disturbance,a slide mode controller was designed to minimize the magnitude of SES's heave motion position.It was theoretically proved that the designed sliding mode controller with the disturbance observer could guarantee the stability of the closed-loop heave motion control system of SESs.Simulations on a Norwegian Navy's SES were carried out and the simulation results illustrated the effectiveness of the proposed controller with the disturbance observer.

Study on dangerous collision area of ships out of control in Sutong Bridge area

Motion state of ship out of control in bridge area was analyzed.Motion procedure after losing control was divided into two steps.One is drift step within stopping period.The other is drift step without inertia,which is induced by wind and current.Mathematical model for motion of ship out of control,considering wind-induced drift,current-induced drift,stopping ability,etc.,was established.Dangerous collision areas for main pier and auxiliary piers were analyzed according to different calculation conditions.

Non-linear controllers in ship tracking control system

The cascade systems which stabilize the transverse deviation of the ship in relation to the set path is presented. The ship's path is determined as a broken line with specified coordinates of way points. Three controllers are used in the system. The main primary controller is the trajectory controller. The set value of heading for the course control system or angular velocity for the turning control system is generated. The course control system is used on the straight line of the set trajectory while the turning controller is used during a change of the set trajectory segment. The characteristics of the non-linear controllers are selected in such a way that the properties of the control system with the rate of turn controller are modelled by the first-order inertia, while the system with the course keeping controller is modelled by a second-order linear term. The presented control system is tested in computer simulation. Some results of simulation tests are presented and discussed.

On the Existence of an Optimal Control of Ship Automatic Steering Instruments

The existence of linear quadratic optimal control of ship automatic steering instruments is studied. Firstly, the sufficient conditions for the quadratic integrability of the solutions of linear second order time-variant differential equations are developed. Secondly, the optimal control form of the ship automatic steering instrument is obtained by using the dynamic programming method, which guarantees a minimal ship sway range, during long-distance navigation, by using as little energy as possible. Finally, based on the above mentioned sufficient conditions, the conditions for the realization of optimal control are obtained, which provides a foundation for choosing the weighted coefficients for optimal control in engineering.

基于云计算的舰船通信网络动态负载均衡控制方法

针对舰船通信网络通信环境复杂、用户需求不确定、影响通信均衡性等问题、提出基于云计算的舰船通信网络动态负载均衡控制方法。利用Ryu控制器获取监控舰船通信网络状态,获取网络负载。创建云计算平台虚拟机,实现执行舰船通信网络动态负载均衡任务调度任务。选取最高迁移概率的物理机结果作为云计算平台虚拟机迁移结果,通过虚拟机的迁移与关闭操作,更新虚拟机的综合权值,实现舰船通信网络动态负载均衡控制。实验结果表明,该方法可实现舰船通信网络的动态负载均衡控制,负载均衡度高于0.7,可有效提升舰船通信网络的资源利用率。