Objectives  In order to secure the maximum safety of intelligent ship transportation, a kind of concise robust control strategy is presented, for which the unique index is to make the ship navigate safely without considering the control energy consumption, which is different from the strategy of normal navigation of intelligent ships whose objectives is to make the ship navigate more accurately, rapidly, and energy-efficiently.

  Methods  Four dimensional Norrbin nonlinear mathematical model and the second order closed-loop gain shaping algorithm were used to design the control strategy.

  Results  A general purpose formula of robust controller design for the course unstable ship to keep stable was obtained. And the simulation results verified the effectiveness of the proposed control stategy.

  Conclusions  The comprehensive performance index is inferior than the previous control strategies under normal sea conditions, but the new strategy can guarantee the intelligent ships' maximum safety under severe sea conditions with wind scale 8 or above, which can be applied to the intelligent ships under severe sea conditions as a safeguard.