Model Predictive Control-Based Trajectory Tracking Approach for Unmanned Sailboats

To address the long-term safe navigation of unmanned sailboats under complex operational conditions, this paper proposes a Model Predictive Control (MPC) approach. First, a four-degree-of-freedom (4-DOF) mathematical model of the unmanned sailboats, incorporating roll motion, is established. Then, by analyzing the dynamic characteristics of the unmanned sailboats and actuator constraints, the MPC objective function and system constraints are constructed, transforming the trajectory tracking problem into a constrained optimization problem. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method maintains acceptable trajectory tracking accuracy and control stability under beam wind conditions (90-degree beam wind).