Ships' Steering in Accurate Regime Using Autopilot with Special Structure of Control Law

Abstract The paper is devoted to the problem of marine autopilots analytical synthesis. This problem is very complicated due to the presence of an extensive population of certain dynamical conditions, requirements and restrictions, which must be satisfied by the appropriate choice of a steering control law. The approach proposed here is based on a special multipurpose structure of the controller. As one of tuning elements, this structure includes dynamical corrector to support desirable features for the ship motion under action of sea wave disturbances. A specialized method of the corrector tuning is proposed to provide an accurate steering or a trade-off between accurate and economical regimes of motion.