A Nonlinear Ship Manoeuvering Model: Identification and adaptive control with experiments for a model ship

Complete nonlinear dynamic maneuvering models of ships, with numerical values, are hard to find in the literature. This paper presents a modeling, identification, and control design where the objective is to maneuver a ship along desired paths at different velocities. Material from a variety of references have been used to describe the ship model, its difficulties, limitations, and possible simplifications for the purpose of automatic control design. The numerical values of the parameters in the model is identified in towing tests and adaptive maneuvering experiments for a small ship in a marine control laboratory.