Path following of underactuated marine surface vessels using line-of-sight based model predictive control

This paper presents a model predictive control (MPC) for a way-point tracking of underactuated surface vessels with input constraints. A three-degree-of-freedom dynamic model of surface vessels has been used for the controller design. In order for the control action to render good helmsman behavior, a MPC scheme with line-of-sight (LOS) path generation capability is formulated. Quadratic programming (QP) is used to solve a linear MPC by successive linearization along the LOS model of the surface vessel. Furthermore, we show that an LOS decision variable can be incorporated into the MPC design to improve the path following performance. The effectiveness of the developed control law is demonstrated via computer simulations.