Tube-based Model Predictive Control for Dynamic Positioning of Marine Vessels

This paper focuses on the design of a robust model predictive control law for dynamic positioning (DP) of marine vessels in the presence of actuator saturation and environmental disturbances. The proposed solution is a tube-based MPC ensuring robustness and constraint fulfillment. Formulation of the tube-based MPC relies on a sufficient robust invariant set condition, along with a linear matrix inequality (LMI) synthesis procedure, and an efficient analytical Pontryagin set difference computation. Simulation results show the effectiveness and satisfactory behaviour of the proposed controller.