A globally stable autopilot with wave filter using only yaw angle measurements

Abstract

A stable minimum phase transfer function from rudder angle to yaw angle is used to design a globally stable adaptive ship autopilot. First-order wave disturbances in yaw are filtered by applying a notch filter. Integral action is introduced by using a reference model technique. Global stability is proven for the total system which include the yaw rate observer, the parameter update law, the feedback controller, the notch filter and the integral part of the controller. The simulation results showed that the performance is excellent, even with no a priori knowledge of the ship parameters.

Keywords

• Global stability
• adaptive ship autopilot
• output feedback
• notch filtering
• integral action