Model-Enhanced Control for Cyber-Physical Security: Simulation of Model-Based Navigation of an Environment-Coupled Watercraft Under Disrupted Global Positioning Conditions

In recent years, jamming of global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) has become a serious issue for many modes of transportation. One underrated countermeasure to anti-GNSS cyberattacks would be physical model based vehicle control, which may diminish the need for a continuous stream of GNSS data. In marine technologies, the model-based navigation can also be a tool for improving fuel efficiency and selecting of optimal safe trajectories. Present numerical modeling and simulation study shows for a real 2.5 m long autonomous catamaran, how the environment-augmented watercraft model based navigation allows for significant distances to be covered without the use of global positioning data by relying only on on-board compass readings, wind speed measurements, and sea current data. In addition, examples of safe operating limit calculations are provided, yielding estimates for the maximum permissible wind and sea current speeds. The article demonstrates also the multiple simulation runs methodology to assess navigation errors due to the non-ideality of models.