Robust sliding mode control for a USV water-jet system

Abstract

A new robust sliding mode control with disturbance and state observers has been proposed to control the nozzle angle of a water-jet system for a Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV). As the water-jet system of a ship is subjected to direct disturbances owing to the exposure to the marine environment in water, it requires a robust control. A state observer and a disturbance observer are added to the water jet nozzle control system to achieve a robust control against disturbances. To verify the performance of the proposed algorithm, a test bed is constructed by a propulsion system used in the popular USV. This proposed algorithm has been evaluated by comparing to the existing algorithm through experiments. The results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm is better than that of the conventional PID or sliding mode controller when controlling the steering of the USV with disturbances. Keywords: USV, Steering system, Sliding mode control, Disturbance, State observer