Graphical abstract

This paper presents a review of research work done on various aspects of control system approaches of unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in order to improve the course keeping performance. Various methods have been used to produce a course keeping control system for manoeuvring system of USV. However, the review reveals that the adaptive backstepping control system is a powerful tool for the design of controllers for nonlinear systems or transformable to form a tight feedback parameter. It is very suitable for the automated control system of USV in relative motion that involves the disturbances from waves and wind. Fuzzy logic control also had been suggested as an alternative approach for complex systems with uncertain dynamics and those with nonlinearities. This method does not rely on the mathematical models, but the heuristic approach. Further studies may be conducted to combine the control method approach mentioned above to develop a real time system with robust control laws to the motions of a USV in waves, usually at a specific speed, including station keeping or heading in sinusoidal and irregular waves