LAUSR

Abstract Based on the linearized equation of ship manoeuvring motion in 4 degrees of freedom, the coupled response models for ship steering and roll motion are derived. To verify the response models, part of the experimental data of 10°/10° zigzag test, performed with the DTMB 5415 model in the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands, is used to train the support vectors of the e-support vector machines and least squares support vector machines, respectively; the manoeuvrability indexes in the response models are identified using the support vectors and the linear kernel function. 10°/10° and 20°/20° zigzag tests are predicted by using the identified manoeuvrability indexes. Good prediction ability and generalization performance of the obtained response models and the proposed identification method are demonstrated by comparing the prediction results with the experimental data.