A Path Following Controller for the Dynamic Model of a Marine Surface Vessel

A path following controller for the dynamic model of an underactuated marine vessel is presented. The solution extends previous results relative to the purely kinematics case and is able to cope with constant and known ocean currents. Based on kinematics, a reference linear and angular velocity is computed such that if the vehicle had such velocities the path following problem would be asymptotically solved. Then, applying feedback linearization to the dynamic model of the surface vessel, yaw torque and surge force commands are computed in order to drive the vessels total velocity on the desired reference values. The resulting control laws for the yaw and surge degrees of freedom result in nonlinear terms (from feedback linearization) and PI terms. Numerical simulations are provided to validate the proposed approach.