Optimal Fuzzy Output Feedback Control for Dynamic Positioning of Vessels With Finite-Time Disturbance Rejection Under Thruster Saturations

This article focuses on the problem of optimal fuzzy output-feedback tracking control for dynamic positioning of marine vessels simultaneously with model uncertainties, unknown disturbances, unavailable velocities, and thruster saturations. The control scheme is built by integrating a fuzzy velocity observer, a finite-time disturbance observer, a dynamic auxiliary system, the optimal control strategy with the dynamic surface control. The fuzzy velocity observer is constructed to obtain the unavailable velocities without requiring the certain model dynamics. The finite-time disturbance observer is established to estimate the unknown disturbances. The dynamic auxiliary system is designed to compensate for thruster saturations effects. By incorporating these methods, a disturbance rejection adaptive controller is designed with dynamic surface control. The optimal compensation term is inserted to minimize the cost function of the tracking error system by adaptive dynamic programming. It is shown that the optimal control consisting of the adaptive controller and the optimal compensation term guarantees that all signals in the closed-loop dynamic positioning system are bounded. Finally, simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed optimal control scheme.