Hybrid power control system of fuel cell powered environment-friendly unmanned surface vehicle

Abstract

A catamaran type unmanned surface vehicle based on a hydrogen fuel cell has been developed to ensure significant reduction in Green House Gas emissions. An automatic navigation system integrated with global positioning and inertial navigation systems was implemented to the autonomous surface vehicle so that it can have capabilities of way-point, standstill turning, casting-off and turning sailing. To simultaneously measure the required power of the fuel cell and dynamic motion of the vehicle, automatically controlled sailing tests were conducted after the gain parameters of the fuzzy PID controller were adjusted to assure reliable tracking control. The hybrid power control algorithm to efficiently utilize the fuel cell and batteries was implemented by considering the results of the sailing tests and the transient response of the fuel cell. The developed catamaran type unmanned surface vehicle powered with fuel cell can be utilized to ocean environment monitoring and military missions.