Development of Small Autonomous Surface Vehicle Implementing Position Control System Using Sliding Mode Control

Currently, autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) are being actively studied. In particular, there are high expectations for their use in aquaculture and research in coastal areas and by the fishing industry. However, conventional ship-based ASVs require considerable manpower and time during loading and unloading. In addition, it takes time to set up the base station, which makes the use of ASVs difficult. Therefore, we are developing a small ASV based on a surfboard that can be easily operated. We also utilize a sliding mode control method that ignores the effects of model errors and disturbances. A waypoint navigation test and a dynamic position system test were conducted on the developed ASV using this control method and this paper reports the experimental results, along with the results of an experiment combining waypoint navigation dynamic position system control.