A Systematic Robust Control Method for Marine Surface Vehicles

This paper provides a systematic method to easily design robust, smooth and effective control laws of PD, PID and (PD2)-type for a marine surface vehicle (MSV). The proposed control laws allow one to force, with ideal or real actuators, a MSV with uncertain parameters and subject to disturbances to follow any navigation trajectory, having a bounded second or third derivative, with a tracking error norm as small as desired, a good transient phase, and feasible control signals. Some practical guidelines to easily design the proposed controllers are given. Finally, the provided control approach is illustrated and validated in cases of berthing a MSV in a busy port, accurately and in a minimum time, and maintaining a MSV in a predetermined position without using anchoring systems, also in presence of measurement noises.