Non linear and intelligent controllers for the ship rudder control

Ship rudders are usually based on hydraulic systems as actuators, and the autopilots are based on PID controller because of the simplicity. But its performance in various environmental conditions is not as good as desired. These disadvantages can be decreased by using an electric motor as a flexible actuator to operate the rudder and apply the modern control theory to control the system. In this paper, two different control methods for the Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor are presented to evaluate the rudder robustness against the disturbances. The main focus of the paper is on the presentation of fuzzy control utility in ship control.