Virtual Simulation Of Ship Orientation And Path-following Control Systems

Scientific verification is an indispensable node in science researches. Practical experiments are restricted by experimental conditions and consume mountains of manpower and material resources, may even threaten the life of who takes the experiment. As the development of computer technology, computer simulation has been an important method to compensate for the unaccomplished practical experiments. It was the emerging of virtual reality that made simulation become more vivid. Human-computer interaction gives more effective ways to prove scientific achievements. In recent years, virtual simulation have gained increasingly attention as a significant branch. Majorities of virtual reality technologies adopted in ship control fields are based on half practically simulation or on virtual simulation system established by a series of simulating computers. The simulation system with high cost as mentioned above was not easy to carry out by institute or agency lack of funds, which set a limitation to the spread of virtual reality.This paper selects a connection of ship orientation/tracking control algorithms and 3D scene by building up a virtual simulation platform on personal computer. A unity of digital simulation and virtual simulation is achieved through Matlab-Visual C++ mixed programming. Moreover, in help of online computation, this platform is able to imitate different kinds of situations in which ship was likely to meet on sea.Firstly, the kinematic model of ship, and the mathematical models of rudder, ship tracking controller, ship directional controller, and disturbance is simulated.Secondly, Runge-Kutta numerical integration is applied to digital simulation study in Matlab to study the models above.Then,3D virtual scene of virtual simulation system is constructed in Creator and Vega, through which virtual environment was founded referenced to real environment.At last, choosing Visual C++ as the main exploit plat, adopting Matlab-VC++ mixed programming to calculate control algorithm, calling Vega API to edit virtual scene, and making combination through virtual simulation and digital simulation for ship tracking/orientation control virtual simulation systems.