Guidance, navigation, and control of an unmanned hovercraft

This paper introduces a simulation and evaluation of guidance, navigation, and control algorithms applied to an autonomous hovercraft. A line-of-sight guidance law is adopted in conjunction with a neural network based adaptive dynamic inversion control scheme for the underactuated hovercraft following a prescribed path. The simulation result demonstrates that the guidance and control scheme can be effective in waypoint following of the underactuated hovercraft, especially, when external disturbances exist. It is also shown that the error signals are bounded using Lyapunov's direct method.