This paper focuses on the problem of control law optimization for marine vessels working in a dynamical positioning (DP) regime. The approach proposed here is based on the use of a special unified multipurpose control law structure constructed on the basis of nonlinear asymptotic observers, that allows the decoupling of a synthesis into simpler particular optimization problems. The primary reason for the observers is to restore deficient information concerning the unmeasured velocities of the vessel. Using a number of separate items in addition to the observers, it is possible to achieve desirable dynamical features of the closed loop connection. The most important feature is the so-called dynamical corrector, and this paper is therefore devoted to solving its optimal synthesis in marine vessels controlled by DP systems under the action of sea wave disturbances. The problem involves the need for minimal intensity of the control action determined by high frequency sea wave components. A specialized approach for designing the dynamical corrector is proposed and the applicability and effectiveness of the approach are illustrated using a practical example of underwater DP system synthesis.

This paper studies the algorithm of the adaptive grid and fuzzy interacting multiple model (AGFIMM) for maneuvering target tracking, while focusing on the problems of the fixed structure multiple model (FSMM) algorithm’s cost-efficiency ratio being not high and the Markov transition probability of the interacting multiple model (IMM) algorithm being difficult to determine exactly. This algorithm realizes the adaptive model set by adaptive grid adjustment, and obtains each model matching degree in the model set by fuzzy logic inference. The simulation results show that the AGFIMM algorithm can effectively improve the accuracy and cost-efficiency ratio of the multiple model algorithm, and as a result is suitable for engineering applications.

The objective of this work is the analytical synthesis problem for marine vehicles autopilots design. Despite numerous known methods for a solution, the mentioned problem is very complicated due to the presence of an extensive population of certain dynamical conditions, requirements and restrictions, which must be satisfied by the appropriate choice of a steering control law. The aim of this paper is to simplify the procedure of the synthesis, providing accurate steering with desirable dynamics of the control system. The approach proposed here is based on the usage of a special unified multipurpose control law structure that allows decoupling a synthesis into simpler particular optimization problems. In particular, this structure includes a dynamical corrector to support the desirable features for the vehicle’s motion under the action of sea wave disturbances. As a result, a specialized new method for the corrector design is proposed to provide an accurate steering or a trade-off between accurate steering and economical steering of the ship. This method guaranties a certain flexibility of the control law with respect to an actual environment of the sailing; its corresponding turning can be realized in real time onboard.

This paper describes path re-planning techniques and underwater obstacle avoidance for unmanned surface vehicle (USV) based on multi-beam forward looking sonar (FLS). Near-optimal paths in static and dynamic environments with underwater obstacles are computed using a numerical solution procedure based on an A* algorithm. The USV is modeled with a circular shape in 2 degrees of freedom (surge and yaw). In this paper, two-dimensional (2-D) underwater obstacle avoidance and the robust real-time path re-planning technique for actual USV using multi-beam FLS are developed. Our real-time path re-planning algorithm has been tested to regenerate the optimal path for several updated frames in the field of view of the sonar with a proper update frequency of the FLS. The performance of the proposed method was verified through simulations, and sea experiments. For simulations, the USV model can avoid both a single stationary obstacle, multiple stationary obstacles and moving obstacles with the near-optimal trajectory that are performed both in the vehicle and the world reference frame. For sea experiments, the proposed method for an underwater obstacle avoidance system is implemented with a USV test platform. The actual USV is automatically controlled and succeeded in its real-time avoidance against the stationary undersea obstacle in the field of view of the FLS together with the Global Positioning System (GPS) of the USV.

The purpose of this research study was to examine the attitude response of a planing craft under the controllable hydrofoils. Firstly, a non-linear longitudinal attitude model was established. In the mathematical model, effects of wind loads were considered. Both the wetted length and windward area varied in different navigation conditions. Secondly, control strategies for hydrofoils were specified. Using the above strategies, the heave and trim of the planing craft was adjusted by controllable hydrofoils. Finally, a simulation program was developed to predict the longitudinal attitudes of the planing craft with wind loads. A series of simulations were performed and effects of control strategies on longitudinal attitudes were analyzed. The results show that under effects of wind loads, heave of fixed hydrofoils planing craft decreased by 6.3%, and pitch increased by 8.6% when the main engine power was constant. Heave decreased by less than 1% and trim angle decreased by 1.7% as a result of using variable attack angle hydrofoils; however, amplitude changes of heave and pitch were less than 1% under the control of changeable attack angle hydrofoils and longitudinal attitude.

An aircraft tractor plays a significant role as a kind of important marine transport and support equipment. It’s necessary to study its controlling and manoeuvring stability to improve operation efficiency. A virtual prototyping model of the tractor-aircraft system based on Lagrange’s equation of the first kind with Lagrange mutipliers was established in this paper. According to the towing characteristics, a path-tracking controller using fuzzy logic theory was designed. Direction control herein was carried out through a compensatory tracking approach. Interactive co-simulation was performed to validate the path-tracking behavior in closed-loop. Simulation results indicated that the tractor followed the reference courses precisely on a flat ground.

In this paper, an underwater vehicle was modeled with six dimensional nonlinear equations of motion, controlled by DC motors in all degrees of freedom. Near-optimal trajectories in an energetic environment for underwater vehicles were computed using a numerical solution of a nonlinear optimal control problem (NOCP). An energy performance index as a cost function, which should be minimized, was defined. The resulting problem was a two-point boundary value problem (TPBVP). A genetic algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO), and ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms were applied to solve the resulting TPBVP. Applying an Euler-Lagrange equation to the NOCP, a conjugate gradient penalty method was also adopted to solve the TPBVP. The problem of energetic environments, involving some energy sources, was discussed. Some near-optimal paths were found using a GA, PSO, and ACO algorithms. Finally, the problem of collision avoidance in an energetic environment was also taken into account.

Radar cross section (RCS) is the measurement of the reflective strength of a target. Reducing the RCS of a naval ship enables its late detection, which is useful for capitalizing on elements of surprise and initiative. Thus, the RCS of a naval ship has become a very important design factor for achieving surprise, initiative, and survivability. Consequently, accurate RCS determination and RCS reduction are of extreme importance for a naval ship. The purpose of this paper is to provide an understanding of the theoretical background and engineering approach to deal with RCS prediction and reduction for naval ships. The importance of RCS, radar fundamentals, RCS basics, RCS prediction methods, and RCS reduction methods for naval ships is also discussed.

A robust adaptive control strategy was developed to force an underactuated surface vessel to follow a reference path, despite the presence of uncertain parameters and unstructured uncertainties including exogenous disturbances and measurement noise. The reference path can be a curve or a straight line. The proposed controller was designed by using Lyapunov’s direct method and sliding mode control and backstepping techniques. Because the sway axis of the vessel was not directly actuated, two sliding surfaces were introduced, the first one in terms of the surge motion tracking errors and the second one for the yaw motion tracking errors. The adaptive control law guaranteed the uniform ultimate boundedness of the tracking errors. Numerical simulation results were provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed controller for path following of underactuated surface vessels.

A constructive method was presented to design a global robust and adaptive output feedback controller for dynamic positioning of surface ships under environmental disturbances induced by waves, wind, and ocean currents. The ship’s parameters were not required to be known. An adaptive observer was first designed to estimate the ship’s velocities and parameters. The ship position measurements were also passed through the adaptive observer to reduce high frequency measurement noise from entering the control system. Using these estimate signals, the control was then designed based on Lyapunov’s direct method to force the ship’s position and orientation to globally asymptotically converge to desired values. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control system. In conclusion, the paper presented a new method to design an effective control system for dynamic positioning of surface ships.

Underwater vehicles operating in complex ocean conditions present difficulties in determining accurate dynamic models. To guarantee robustness against parameter uncertainty, an adaptive controller for dive-plane control, based on Lyapunov theory and back-stepping techniques, was proposed. In the closed-loop system, asymptotic tracking of the reference depth and pitch angle trajectories was accomplished. Simulation results were presented which show effective dive-plane control in spite of the uncertainties in the system parameters.

In order to minimize the harm caused by the instability of a planing craft, a motion prediction model is essential. This paper analyzed the feasibility of using an MGM(1,N) model in grey system theory to predict planing craft motion and carried out the numerical simulation experiment. According to the characteristics of planing craft motion, a recurrence formula was proposed of the parameter matrix of an MGM(1,N) model. Using this formula, data can be updated in real-time without increasing computational complexity significantly. The results of numerical simulation show that using an MGM(1,N) model to predict planing motion is feasible and useful for prediction. So the method proposed in this study can reflect the planing craft motion mechanism successfully, and has rational and effective functions of forecasting and analyzing trends.

In considering the characteristic of a rudder, the maneuvers of a ship were described by an unmatched uncertain nonlinear mathematic model with unknown virtual control coefficient and parameter uncertainties. In order to solve the uncertainties in the ship heading control, specifically the controller singular and paramount re-estimation problem, a new multiple sliding-mode adaptive fuzzy control algorithm was proposed by combining Nussbaum gain technology, the approximation property of fuzzy logic systems, and a multiple sliding-mode control algorithm. Based on the Lyapunov function, it was proven in theory that the controller made all signals in the nonlinear system of unmatched uncertain ship motion uniformly bounded, with tracking errors converging to zero. Simulation results show that the demonstrated controller design can track a desired course fast and accurately. It also exhibits strong robustness peculiarity in relation to system uncertainties and disturbances.

To provide a suitable model for AUV simulation and control purposes, a general nonlinear dynamic model including a novel thruster hydrodynamics model was derived. Based on the modeling method, the “AUV-XX” simulation platform was established to carry out fundamental tests on its motion characteristics, stability, and controllability. A motion control strategy consisting of both position and speed control in a horizontal plane was designed for different task assignments of underwater vehicles. Combined control of heave and pitch was adopted to compensate for the reduction of vertical tunnel thrusters when the vehicle is moving at a high speed. An improved S-surface controller based on the capacitor plate model was developed with flexible gain selections made possible by different forms of restricting the error and changing the rate of the error. Simulation results show that the derived general mathematical model together with simulation platform can provide a test bed for fundamental tests of motion control. Additionally, the capacitor plate model S-surface control shows a good performance in guiding the vehicle to achieve the desired position and speed with sufficient accuracy.

The error equation of a rotating inertial navigation system was introduced. The effect of the system’s main error source (constant drift of gyro and zero bias of accelerometer) under rotating conditions for the system was analyzed. Validity of theoretical analysis was shown via simulation, and that provides a theoretical foundation for a rotating strap-down inertial navigation system during actual experimentation and application.

A terminal sliding mode fuzzy control based on multiple sliding surfaces was proposed for ship course tracking steering, which takes account of rudder characteristics and parameter uncertainty. In order to solve the problem, the controller was designed by employing the universal approximation property of fuzzy logic system, the advantage of Nussbaum function, and using multiple sliding mode control algorithm based on the recursive technique. In the last step of designing, a nonsingular terminal sliding mode was utilized to drive the last state of the system to converge in a finite period of time, and high-order sliding mode control law was designed to eliminate the chattering and make the system robust. The simulation results showed that the controller designed here could track a desired course fast and accurately. It also exhibited strong robustness peculiarly to system, and had better adaptive ability than traditional PID control algorithms. Keywords: ship course control; unmatched uncertainty; multiple sliding mode control; nonsingular terminal sliding mode control; robustness

Physical testing of large-scale ship models at sea is a new experimental method. It is a cheap and reliable way to research the environment adaptability of a ship in complex and extreme wave conditions. It is necessary to have a stable experimental system for the test. Since the experimental area is large, a remote control system and a telemetry system are essential, and were designed by the authors. An experiment was conducted on the Songhuajiang River to test the systems. The relationship between the model’s speed and its electromotor’s revolutions was also measured during the model test. The results showed that the two systems make it possible to carry out large-scale model tests at sea.

In order to improve the security and reliability for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) navigation, an H∞ robust fault-tolerant controller was designed after analyzing variations in state-feedback gain. Operating conditions and the design method were then analyzed so that the control problem could be expressed as a mathematical optimization problem. This permitted the use of linear matrix inequalities (LMI) to solve for the H∞ controller for the system. When considering different actuator failures, these conditions were then also mathematically expressed, allowing the H∞ robust controller to solve for these events and thus be fault-tolerant. Finally, simulation results showed that the H∞ robust fault-tolerant controller could provide precise AUV navigation control with strong robustness.

The effect of line voltage drop is considered larger on loads, especially on asynchronous motor, transformers and other non-linear load parameters in power system of large ships. A novel power flow method based on improved node voltage method is proposed, and a typical ship power system, which has 2 power stations and 10 nodes, with closed-loop design but open-loop operation, is taken as an example. Simulation results show that the improved power flow calculation method has achieved higher accuracy and better convergence.

The accuracy of parameter estimation is critical when digitally modeling a ship. A parameter estimation method with constraints was developed, based on the variational method. Performance functions and constraint equations in the variational method are constructed by analyzing input and output equations of the system. The problem of parameter estimation was transformed into a problem of least squares estimation. The parameter estimation equation was analyzed in order to get an optimized estimation of parameters based on the Lagrange multiplication operator. Simulation results showed that this method is better than the traditional least squares estimation, producing a higher precision when identifying parameters. It has very important practical value in areas of application such as system identification and parameter estimation.

Multivariables, strong coupling, nonlinearity, and large delays characterize the boiler-turbine coordinated control systems for ship power equipment. To better deal with these conditions, a compound control strategy based on a support vector machine (SVM) with inverse identification was proposed and applied to research simulating coordinated control systems. This method combines SVM inverse control and fuzzy control, taking advantage of the merits of SVM inverse controls which can be designed easily and have high reliability, and those of fuzzy controls, which respond rapidly and have good anti-jamming capability and robustness. It ensures the controller can be controlled with near instantaneous adjustments to maintain a steady state, even if the SVM is not trained well. The simulation results show that the control quality of this fuzzy-SVM compound control algorithm is high, with good performance in dynamic response speed, static stability, restraint of overshoot, and robustness.

With the increasing importance of ocean exploitation,providing anti-rolling stability for ships at anchor has become more and more important. The lift-generation theory of traditional fin stabilizers is based on incoming flow velocity,which is not suitable for explaining lift generated at anchor. We analyzed non-steady flows,with forces on fin stabilizers generated by non-incoming flow velocity conditions,and gave a new lift-generation model. The correctness of the model was proven by comparing experimental results of fin stabilizer motion under non-incoming velocity conditions from the fluid computation software with that from the emulator of the lift-generation model. Finally,the model was used in an anti-rolling system on a ship and the reduction of roll was much better than what could be achieved by passive anti-rolling tanks.

The flexibility demand of marine nuclear power plant is very high,the multiple parameters of the marine nuclear power plant with the once-through steam generator are strongly coupled,and the normal PID control of the turbine speed can’t meet the control demand. This paper introduces a turbine speed Fuzzy-PID controller to coordinately control the steam pressure and thus realize the demand for quick tracking and steady state control over the turbine speed by using the Fuzzy control’s quick dynamic response and PID control’s steady state performance. The simulation shows the improvement of the response time and steady state performance of the control system.

Ship motion, with six degrees of freedom, is a complex stochastic process. Sea wind and waves are the primary influencing factors. Prediction of ship motion is significant for ship navigation. To eliminate errors, a path prediction model incorporating ship pitching was developed using the Gray topological method, after analyzing ship pitching motions. With the help of simple introduction to Gray system theory, we selected a group of threshold values. Based on an analysis of ship pitch angle sequences over 40 second intervals, a Grey metabolism GM(1,1) model was established according to the time-series which every threshold corresponded to. Forecasting future ship motion with the GM (1,1) model allowed drawing of the forecast curve with effective forecasting points. The precision of the test results show that the model is accurate, and the forecast results are reliable.

There are many filtering methods that can be used for the initial alignment of an integrated inertial navigation system.This paper discussed the use of GPS,but focused on two kinds of filters for the initial alignment of an integrated strapdown inertial navigation system (SINS).One method is based on the Kalman filter (KF),and the other is based on the robust filter.Simulation results showed that the filter provides a quick transient response and a little more accurate estimate than KF,given substantial process noise or unknown noise statistics.So the robust filter is an effective and useful method for initial alignment of SINS.This research should make the use of SINS more popular,and is also a step for further research.

Conventional PID controllers are widely used in fin stabilizer control systems,but they have time-variations,nonlinearity,and uncertainty influencing their control effects.A lift feedback fuzzy-PID control method was developed to better deal with these problems,and this lift feedback fin stabilizer system was simulated under different sea condition.Test results showed the system has better anti-rolling performance than traditional fin-angle PID control systems.

A practical antenna has been designed and developed for INMARSAT mobile satellite communications. The design uses low cost materials such as foam and copper foil to create a stacked microstrip antenna array. Several techniques were adopted to enhance the impedance bandwidth and axial ratio bandwidth. The final design parameters were optimized by EM simulation. Finally, the L-strip fed six-element stacked microstrip antenna array was constructed and tested. Simulated and measured results show that in the whole INMARSAT work band, the VSWR of the antenna is less than 1.6, its antenna gain is higher than 15riB and wide-angle axial ratio (AR) 3dB is more than 21°. The antenna has been successfully used with a HNS 9201 terminal.