2D Path Following for Marine Craft: A Least-Square Approach

We study the problem of straight-line path following for fully actuated marine craft. We propose a controller that adjusts the speed of the marine craft according to the geometric distance and the rate of convergence to the path. The control law is derived using the method of least squares, which is used to find an approximate solution for overdetermined systems. The conditions under which the closed-loop system is globally asymptotically stable are found. Moreover, a method to ensure zero cross-track error in the presence of ocean currents is proposed. The stability proof relies on the theory of cascaded systems. The effectiveness of the method is verified by performing computer simulations.