Systematic Gain-Tuned Adaptive Backstepping Control for Electric Cycloidal Propellers With Uncertainties and Disturbances

This work addresses the emerging challenge of robust control in electric cycloidal propulsion systems, a technology with significant potential for maritime sustainability. Current control strategies often have limited effectiveness in accurately capturing the nonlinear, coupled electromechanical dynamics and in handling disturbances and uncertainties related to independent blade actuation, which also involves multiblade synchronization challenges. To overcome these limitations, a robust adaptive backstepping (AB) controller is developed to regulate both propeller disk speed and six-blade pitch angles synchronously, explicitly accounting for coupled electromechanical dynamics, external disturbances, and parameter uncertainties. The approach computes actuator torques directly for independent electric motors driving the propeller disk and blades, achieving close alignment with experimental power–speed, hydrodynamic, and kinematic phase data. Compared to the existing nonlinear control method, it demonstrates 52%–86% higher tracking accuracy, 49.5%–59.7% reduced control fluctuations, and 37.5%–66.7% faster convergence, validated through extensive simulations. Unlike prior cycloidal propulsion studies that overlook full electromechanical coupling, do not address a systematic methodology for controller gain tuning, and disregard disturbances and uncertainties, this work presents the first unified, torque-level control framework for multiblade electric cycloidal propellers.