BENCHMARK CONTROL PROBLEMS FOR A NON-LINEAR UNDERACTUATED HOVERCRAFT: A SIMULATION LABORATORY FOR CONTROL TESTING

Hovercrafts are a type of vehicles with a structure model similar to marine vehicles. These systems are strongly non-linear so their dynamics are complex. The problems of motion control can be classified in three groups: point stabilization, trajectory tracking and path following. From a pedagogical point of view it is difficult to study the behaviour of this type of vehicles using only static graphs. In order to understand the dynamics of these vehicles it is necessary to use interactive dynamic simulations. This paper shows a simulation environment used as a laboratory to design, analyze and test controllers for the three benchmark control problems for the model of a radio control hovercraft with the possibility of implementing the designs obtained in the real system.