A control strategy for steering an autonomous surface sailing vehicle in a tacking maneuver

Abstract

Sailing vessels such as sailboats but also landyachts are vehicles representing a real challenge for automation. However, the control aspects of such vehicles were hitherto very little studied. This paper presents a simpli ed dynamic model of a so-called landyacht allowing to capture the main elements of the behavior of surface sailing vessels. We then propose a path generation scheme and a controller design for a well-known and fundamental maneuver in sailing referred to as tacking. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the approach.

On Motion Planning for Point‐to‐Point Maneuvers for a Class of Sailing Vehicles

“…A Phenomenological Model. Instead of using a full model describing the forces and moments acting on a sailing vehicle, we use a simpler one, originally introduced in [9,10], representing the basic dynamic behaviour of such vehicles, and which is useful for trajectory and path generation purposes. As will be seen the interest of the model lies in its simplicity, combined with the representation of a trait common to all sailing vehicles: the no-go zone, also called no-sailing zone.…”

“…In a previous study (see [9,10]), one of the authors of the present paper introduced a simple and quite general model to represent what is thought to be the essence of the dynamic behaviour of many sailing vehicles, that is, their well-known zigzag-like trajectories whenever these vehicles aim for a destination in the direction of the wind. Roughly speaking, this model combined a well-known kinematic model widely used in robotics and also somewhat connected with traditional guidance systems (see [11, page 153] in this regard), together with a polar dead zone to represent the nosailing zone familiar to sailors.…”

On Steering a Sailing Ship in a Wearing Maneuver

“…Since we are in a "wearing maneuver" configuration, the vehicle will not be moving in and out of the no-go zone like in a tacking maneuver (see Jouffroy (2009)). Because of this, the input u s (t) will mostly affect the speed of the vehicle on the path.…”

“…Following our previous work (see Jouffroy (2009)), consider hence the following set of differential equationṡ where x, y are the earth-fixed positions, ψ the heading angle, u the surge velocity, and δ the rudder angle (see figure 2). We assume δ is limited to be within the interval…”

On Steering a Sailing Ship in a Wearing Maneuver

“…Following our previous work (see Jouffroy (2009)), this paper is a preliminary study towards trajectory and reference input generation that would take into account the global dynamic of sailing vessels. More specifically, we consider hereafter the particular case of what is known as a wearing maneuver for square-rigged vessels (see Harland (1984)), i.e.…”