Robust Ship Heading Control with Composite Nonlinear Feedback

We study in this paper the application of a nonlinear control technique, i.e., the so-called composite nonlinear feedback (CNF), to the ship heading control. Noting that it is difficult to get the precise model of the ship, we design a linear robust control law to the heading control problem. Based on this linear control law, a CNF control law is designed to improve the transient performance of the closed-loop system such that it has desired dynamic performance, e.g., quick response and small overshoot. The simulation result shows that the proposed control law can achieve the heading angle tracking position quickly and smoothly, and it has good robustness to the change of the uncertain parameters.