Adaptive pid control of an autonomous sailboat

Abstract

This paper discusses the control architecture for autonomous sailboat navigation. The control of non linear autonomous sailboat system is done by using Conventional PID controller (CPID) and Adaptive PID controller (APID). This mainly focuses on the way of dynamically controlling the sail of the sailboat to reduce the heel angle and roll motion caused by the wind. A large heeling angle, a lot of roll motion due to wind gusts can cause the boat to capsize. Sailboats cannot sail directly up-wind either and one have to move in a zigzag pattern to be able to sail up-wind. The sail angle is optimized and rudder angle is controlled for the given wind direction and desired moment. The main goal is to allow long endurance autonomous mission.