Adaptive generalized predictive control for dynamic positioning system of ships with model unknown parameters

This paper proposes an adaptive generalized predictive control for dynamic positioning of ships with unknown model parameters and unknown time-varying environmental disturbances. The controlled auto-regressive integrated moving average (CARIMA) model is employed to describe the movements of ships with model parameter and disturbance uncertainties. The recursive least square method with forgetting factor is utilized to design adaptive laws to estimate the CARIMA model parameters online. Considering both the positioning accuracy and the change intensity of control increments, a cost function is constructed. The optimal control increments that minimize the cost function are obtained by using Lagrange multiplier method. Then, the adaptive control law is designed to maintain ship’s position and heading at desired values. Finally, simulation studies in different cases are carried out and simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme.