Adaptive Neural Network Control with Backstepping for Surface Ships with Input Dead-Zone

This paper addresses the problem of adaptive neural network controller with backstepping technique for fully actuated surface vessels with input dead-zone. The combination of approximation-based adaptive technique and neural network system is used for approximating the nonlinear function of the ship plant. Through backstepping and Lyapunov theory synthesis, an indirect adaptive network controller is derived for dynamic positioning ships without dead-zone property. In order to improve the control effect, a dead-zone compensator is derived using fuzzy logic technique to handle the dead-zone nonlinearity. The main advantage of the proposed controller is that it can be designed without explicit knowledge about the ship motion model, and dead-zone nonlinearity is well compensated. A set of simulations is carried out to verify the performance of the proposed controller.