Generalized Predictive Controller Design for Ship Track Keeping

A Generalized Predictive Controller (GPC) for ship track keeping is introduced in this paper. A predictive model for desired heading angles is deduced, the controller is designed based not only on the prediction of the outputs (heading angles), but also on the prediction of the desired heading angles. A recursive algorithm for matrix inversion in the controller is also presented. Applied to cargo ship‟s track keeping, simulation results show efficiency of this new control scheme. The computational time required by the recursive algorithm for matrix inversion is only 1/3 as general matrix inversion algorithms.