High-fidelity process plant modeling of an unmanned sailboat with a wing sail based on multi-body dynamics
Published in IFAC Conference on Control Applications in Marine Systems, Robotics, and Vehicles, 2025
This study develops a pioneering high-fidelity process plant model for unmanned sailboats with wing sails, implemented in MATLAB/Simulink. The 6-DoF multi-body dynamics framework incorporates frequency-domain hydrodynamics (via WAMIT), Morison equation-based fluid load modeling with precomputed CFD coefficients, and discretized panel methods for distributed foil forces. Validated through static sail/rudder force characterization and dynamic wave-response analysis, the modular model enables bidirectional coupling between rigid-body dynamics and environmental forces, providing a physically consistent tool for design optimization and control validation in realistic marine conditions.
Recommended citation: B. Peng, Y. An, M. Zhang, and Z. Ren*. (2025). "High-fidelity process plant modeling of an unmanned sailboat with a wing sail based on multi-body dynamics." IFAC-PapersOnLine.
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