Researchers Anıl Erdinç Türetken, Hakan Ersoy, and Aslihan Kartci have published a study comparing control strategies for thruster-driven marine systems, with a focus on energy efficiency and actuator stress. The research, conducted at Istanbul Technical University, evaluates the performance of model reference control (MRC) against conventional PID controllers in managing surge velocity under wave disturbances and sensor noise.
The study centers on a high-order model of a Blue Robotics T200 thruster with a 2 kg vehicle, subjected to an 8 N sinusoidal wave disturbance and white noise in speed measurement. The primary objective is to assess not only the tracking performance of the controllers but also their energy usage and impact on actuator stress. The researchers optimized the MRC strategy using metaheuristic algorithms and compared it against PID controllers tuned similarly.
The results reveal that the optimized model reference control (MRC-R*) outperforms other controllers by delivering the lowest control energy and the smoothest command signals, all while maintaining acceptable tracking performance. The internal model control (IMC)-based design also performed closely to MRC-R*. In contrast, PID controllers, while achieving comparable root mean square (RMS) tracking errors, did so at the expense of excessive actuator activity and energy consumption, rendering them impractical for scenarios involving significant wave disturbances.
This research underscores the advantages of advanced control strategies like MRC in marine applications, particularly where energy efficiency and actuator longevity are critical. The findings suggest that MRC could be a more sustainable and practical choice for managing thruster-driven systems in real-world conditions, where wave disturbances and sensor noise are common challenges. As marine technology continues to evolve, the insights from this study could guide the development of more efficient and robust control systems for underwater vehicles and other marine applications. Read the original research paper here.