Implementation of path-following algorithm for an unmanned surface vehicle using viam-navi gps/ins module

Abstract

With the understanding and development of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USV), will be beneficial to not only the environmental monitoring, military, but also in many commercial applications. The vehicle adopts a catamaran design making it easy to assemble, transport and integrated sensors for the desired applications. Sensor data is collected to estimate, improve the quality of the sensors and display real-time monitor environmental parameters. This paper describes the control system which provides path following, under external forces: wind, waves and currents. The guidance and control system are developed to guide the vehicle to follow waypoints using the Line of Sight (LOS) algorithm based on the input of the sensors. These waypoints are automatically received from ground station and stored on an on-board computer. The navigation system is one of the most important USV subsystems. To improve the ability of navigation for vehicles, Viam-Navi GPS/INS Module: integration of Inertial Navigation System (INS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) is developed with low-cost, highly accurate and stable navigation system. Beside, modelling and simulation are presented for developing an appropriate guidance and control systems, the results of which is applied to the designed platform. Finally, experiment of these navigation, controllers and guidance laws show that a low deviation between the vehicle and path.