Effect of damping on waypoint tracking control of an underactuated small robotic boat

The current investigation combines the control of boat heading and speed into one logic framework using a proportional waypoint-following regulator in a surge-sway- yaw planer model. The proposed control logic uses the thrust angle and the thrust force as control inputs and the boat yaw angle and speed as control outputs. This control scheme is believed to be more intuitive in interpreting the human- machine interaction, and simpler in computational effort in both simulation and deployment. Three sets of hydrodynamic damping coefficients extracted from the computational fluidic dynamics (CFD) simulations of a small robotic boat have been used to demonstrate their effect on path following performances.