Ship Manoeuvring and Control

A special issue of Journal of Marine Science and Engineering (ISSN 2077-1312). This special issue belongs to the section "Ocean Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 December 2025 | Viewed by 307

Special Issue Editor

Navigation College, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian 116026, China
Interests: adaptive control; reinforcement learning; identification modeling; deep learning; and their applications in marine cybernetics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Intelligent ships sailing on the sea leverage cutting-edge perception and sensor information fusion technologies. These technologies enable them to comprehensively and precisely gather diverse status information during navigation. Subsequently, with the aid of computer technology, this information is processed with high efficiency. In recent years, remarkable advancements in intelligent marine ships have spurred the development of numerous maritime technologies. Among these, ship manoeuvring and control have become hotspots of research activity. They are crucial for analyzing the maneuvering capabilities of ships, devising ship motion control systems, and enhancing the intelligence level of intelligent ship navigation. Ship maneuvering is intricately intertwined with navigation safety. To prevent the design and construction of vessels that fail to meet the fundamental requirements of maneuverability, conducting research on ship maneuverability in the initial stages of construction and design is of profound significance. Ship motion control, on the other hand, represents a core technology for autonomous ship navigation. It guarantees that ships can sail safely, cost-effectively, and comfortably along predetermined routes, thus making the study of ship motion highly practical. While substantial progress has been made in both the theoretical and engineering aspects of ship manoeuvring and control, these issues nonetheless warrant further study, particularly in terms of improving modeling accuracy, enhancing control precision, and optimizing energy efficiency under high-complexity sea conditions.

The aim of this Special Issue is to provide an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to share their latest theoretical and technological achievements in ship maneuvering and control. All submissions are expected to present original ideas and make novel contributions.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • The applications of ADP-based, learning-based, and reinforcement learning-based control on marine ships;
  • Adaptive control of marine ships;
  • Traffic flow analysis and forecasting for marine ships;
  • Ship motion modeling techniques.

Dr. Weiwei Bai
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • adaptive control of marine ships
  • intelligent ships
  • ship motion identification and modeling
  • ship motion control
  • ship manoeuvring
  • ship control
  • ship navigation

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 1219 KB  
Article
Singularity-Free Fixed-Time Cooperative Tracking Control of Unmanned Surface Vehicles with Model Uncertainties
by Yuanbo Su, Renhai Yu, Peiyun Ye and Tieshan Li
J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 2025, 13(9), 1791; https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse13091791 - 17 Sep 2025
Viewed by 142
Abstract
This article addresses the problem of singularity-free fixed-time tracking control for multiple unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) with model uncertainties. To compensate for the uncertain nonlinearities in the multi-USV systems, fuzzy logic approximators are employed to estimate unknown hydrodynamic parameters. By integrating adaptive fixed-time [...] Read more.
This article addresses the problem of singularity-free fixed-time tracking control for multiple unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) with model uncertainties. To compensate for the uncertain nonlinearities in the multi-USV systems, fuzzy logic approximators are employed to estimate unknown hydrodynamic parameters. By integrating adaptive fixed-time control theory with backstepping methodology, a novel singularity-free fixed-time consensus control scheme is developed, incorporating a error switching mechanism to prevent singularities arising from the differentiation of speed control laws. Through rigorous analysis via fixed-time stability theory, the proposed control scheme guarantees that consensus tracking errors reach a small region around zero within fixed-time. Numerical simulations demonstrate the efficacy of the presented method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ship Manoeuvring and Control)
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