Study on adaptive control of the propelling and turning manoeuvre of an autonomous water vehicle for ocean observation

Autonomous water vehicle (AWV) is a kind of remote-control unmanned boat which can self- autonomously sail at the water, and carry different observation instruments to cruise offshore. There are two sets of propellers which are of elec-driving, turnable, and installed on the port and starboard of AWV. Through controlling the revolution speed and the angles of two elec-driving propellers on the port and starboard, the motion of the AWV can be realized. The wind, wave and current on the sea are random interferences to the AWV, the uncertainty and incompletion of the interference information make it difficult to control and manoeuvre the AWV. Because the movement of AWV can be described by the three degrees of freedom in the movement coordinate system, the movement equations and response equations of AWV´s motion are built. An adaptive control method based on the model reference is proposed to control the speed and the cruise of AWV. The test results that: by control separately the port and starboard turnable elec-driving propellers working at different speeds and turning angles, the flexible manoeuvrability of the AWV is satisfied and the functions of auto-location control and fixed-position turning control are realized. The manoeuvrability of the AWV is able to meet the requirements of design.