Active Disturbance Rejection Control for Trajectory Tracking of a Seagoing USV: Design, Simulation, and Field Experiments
Jelmer van der Saag, Elia Trevisan, Wouter Falkena, Javier Alonso-Mora
Abstract
Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs) face significant control challenges due to uncertain environmental disturbances like waves and currents. This paper proposes a trajectory tracking controller based on Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) implemented on the DUS V2500. A custom simulation incorporating realistic waves and current disturbances is developed to validate the controller’s performance, supported by further validation through field tests in the harbour of Scheveningen, the Netherlands, and at sea. Simulation results demonstrate that ADRC significantly reduces cross-track error across all tested conditions compared to a baseline PID controller but increases control effort and energy consumption. Field trials confirm these findings while revealing a further increase in energy consumption during sea trials compared to the baseline. Videos can be found at https://autonomousrobots.nl/paper_websites/adrc-demcon.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{iros2025_activedisturbanc,
title = {Active Disturbance Rejection Control for Trajectory Tracking of a Seagoing USV: Design, Simulation, and Field Experiments},
author = {Jelmer van der Saag and Elia Trevisan and Wouter Falkena and Javier Alonso-Mora},
booktitle = {IROS 2025},
year = {2025}
}