Classical controllers to reduce the vertical acceleration of a high-speed craft

This article describes the tuning of various digital control structures by means of genetic algorithms with the aim of reducing the vertical acceleration of a high-speed craft in order to decrease Motion Sickness Incidence (MSI). The objective pursued in designing each one of these controllers was to obtain good performance for a craft speed of 40 knots and for sea-state 4. To tune the ship controllers the Simulink model was used. The variable controlled was the vertical acceleration measured in the position of the “worst passenger” (WVA), which is also the cost function to be minimized in the genetic algorithm. It is found that these controllers provide a significant vertical acceleration and MSI reduction for the studied case.