Control of large ship motions in harbor maneuvers by applying sliding mode control

A Multivariable Sliding Mode Controller (MSMC) has been constructed for large ships in harbor maneuvers. Computer simulations of motions of a Very Large Crude Carriage with MSMC in various harbor maneuvers verify that the method is very effective to deal with several problems of controlling large ships in harbor maneuvers, including slow speed, modelling non-linearity and strong environmental disturbances.