Straight-Path Tracking Control of Underactuated Ship Based on Backstepping Method

Ship motion mathematical model is highly nonlinear, while the Backstepping design method is a very effective treatment of non-linear system controller design problem. Aiming at the non-linear ship tracking control system, this article adopts the Backstepping method and Lyapunov-based direct method. A nonlinear robust control algorithm is proposed, and a linear tracking controller is designed. To the actual situation of the control law, the paper uses MATLAB Simulink toolbox to establish a nonlinear hydrodynamic model, and takes advantage of the simulation platform to validate the control law. The simulation results validate that the control law is able to steer a ship on the prescribed straight path. Numerical simulation shows the effectiveness and strong robustness of the control law proposed in this paper.