Sliding mode controller design for supercavitating vehicles

• Published in: Ocean engineering Vol. 184; pp. 173 - 183
• Main Authors: Zhao, Xinhua, Zhang, Xiaoyu, Ye, Xiufen, Liu, Yi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 15.07.2019
• Subjects: Nonlinear model; Observer; Sliding mode control; Supercavitating vehicle; Supercavitating vehicle; Nonlinear model; Sliding mode control; Observer
• ISSN: 0029-8018; 1873-5258
• DOI: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2019.04.066

The supercavitating vehicle are capable of achieving high speed through cavitation reduction technology, however, the model of the vehicle is inferior stability and nonlinear dynamics. Inferior stability is mainly reflected in the sensitivity to the interference. The strong nonlinear characteristics embodies in the special planing force caused by water-cavity interaction on the aft part of the vehicle. Regarding to the inferior stability and strong nonlinear dynamics of the supercavitating vehicle, sliding mode controllers are presented in this paper. By using boundary sliding mode control, boundary of nonlinear planing force is estimated. In order to reduce the switch gain of the boundary sliding mode controller, the sliding mode controller based on disturbance observer is proposed. The disturbance observer is designed. The stability of the system is proved by Lyapunov stability theorem. Evaluations results through simulation on tracking performance of the nominal and uncertainty system with time delay show the effectiveness of the control method. •The ordinary sliding mode controller, boundary sliding mode controller and continues sliding mode controller based on disturbance observer are designed for the supercavitating vehicle.•The Lyapunov theorem is exploited to prove the system stability.•The step responses and tracking responses are conducted in the simulation, and the time delay is added in the simulation.