A direct generalized predictive controller for ship course keeping

Generalized predictive control (GPC) has been proved to be efficient in various industrial applications as well as in ship control. However, most of the adaptive GPC algorithms need long execution time and the applications of GPC are limited in systems with slow time constants. To alleviate this problem, a direct GPC algorithm for ship course keeping is presented. The coefficients of controller are estimated directly by parameter identifier. The algorithm is used for ship course keeping and the simulating results show that the algorithm is simple and efficient.