This paper addresses the development of a three degree of freedom dynamic model for a custom-made unmanned surface vehicle, which includes an identification of parameters via measurements, estimation and through field experiments. Furthermore, a control approach based on backstepping with constrains to deal with the under-actuated nature of the model is designed in order to perform tracking of desired trajectories. Finally, the results validate the model by a comparison between experimental and simulation responses and shows the feasibility of the proposed control scheme.
