Motion control and thrust allocation of an unmanned boat

This paper is dedicated to motion control of an unmanned water jet propelled boat. The required forces and torques to control the boat are obtained based on the 3-DOF vessel mathematic model and three typical operation modes of the boat. Then the required thrust of each water jet is determined according to desired thrust and all kinds of constraints including power limitations and mechanical constraints. The study of this paper is the foundation work for motion control, which will be beneficial to future engineering application.