Simulation of the Guidance and Control Systems for Underactuated Vessels

In the present work, a simulation model, integrating a path planning algorithm in the presence of obstacles with a track keeping controller, is developed. The path planning is based on a modified version of the Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT*) algorithm. The track keeping is based on the Line-of-Sight (LOS) waypoints navigation for underactuated vessels. To achieve more reliable results, a detailed ship simulation model is used as a benchmark. Different scenarios and navigation modes are successfully tested, and the results are presented and analysed.