Path following control system for a tanker ship model

A two-dimensional path following control system for autonomous marine surface vessels is presented. The guidance system is obtained through a way-point guidance scheme based on line-of-sight projection algorithm and the speed controller is achieved through state feedback linearization. A new approach concerning the calculation of a dynamic line-of-sight vector norm is presented which main idea is to improve the speed of the convergence of the vehicle to the desired path. The results obtained are compared with the traditional line-of-sight scheme. It is intended that the complete system will be tested and implemented in a model of the “Esso Osaka” tanker. The results of simulations are presented here showing the effectiveness of the system aiming in to be robust enough to perform tests either in tanks or lakes.