Modeling, Identification and Control of High-Speed ASVs: Theory and Experiments

Abstract

This paper considers a powerful approach to modeling, identification, and control of high-speed autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) operating in the displacement, semi-displacement, and planing regions. The approach is successfully applied to an 8.45 m long ASV capable of speeds up to 18 m/s, resulting in a high-quality control-oriented model. The identified model is used to design four different controllers for the vessel speed and yaw rate, which have been tested through full-scale experiments in the Trondheimsfjord. The controllers are compared using various performance metrics, and two controllers utilizing a model-based feedforward term are shown to achieve outstanding performance.