Rudder Actuation System for an Autonomous System

This paper describes design, test and evaluate of a rudder actuation system for an autonomous vehicle. Autonomous vehicle consists of GPS system interfaced with rudder actuation system which is used to guide the ship towards destination without human interface. This system is used to replace the existing hydraulic actuators which are currently used to control the fin's position. Rudder actuation system uses 8051 Microcontroller to control the fin's position which gives more accuracy in position control when compared with hydraulic actuators. Subsequently, the performance of the whole rudder actuation system and especially the behavior of the controller have been tested with different handling maneuvers.