Position tracking controller based on transformed equations of horizontal motion for a class of vehicles

This paper proposes an approach to the design of trajectory tracking controller for a class of vehicles, moving in the horizontal plane, that takes into account dynamical couplings in the inertia matrix. To this aim the equations of motion are transformed to the form which arises from the inertia matrix decomposition. The main feature of this approach is that the mechanical couplings are included in the control algorithm. It results from the fact that dynamics of the vehicle is taken into account in the velocity gain matrix. The stability of the designed control scheme is shown using the Lyapunov method. Effectiveness of the strategy is given via simulation on a 3-DOF hovercraft model.