Trajectory tracking sliding mode control of underactuated AUVs

• Published in: Nonlinear dynamics Vol. 84; no. 2; pp. 1079 - 1091
• Main Authors: Elmokadem, Taha, Zribi, Mohamed, Youcef-Toumi, Kamal
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.04.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Automotive Engineering; Autonomous underwater vehicles; Classical Mechanics; Computer simulation; Control; Control systems; Disturbances; Dynamical Systems; Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Military; Oceans; Original Paper; Robust control; Sliding mode control; Tracking; Tracking control; Trajectories; Trajectory control; Vibration; Autonomous underwater vehicles; AUV; Trajectory tracking; Sliding mode control; Underactuated
• ISSN: 0924-090X; 1573-269X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11071-015-2551-x

This paper deals with the control of underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). AUVs are needed in many applications such as the exploration of oceans, scientific and military missions, etc. There are many challenges in the control of AUVs due to the complexity of the AUV model, the unmodelled dynamics, the uncertainties and the environmental disturbances. A trajectory tracking control scheme is proposed in this paper; this control scheme is designed using the sliding mode control technique in order to be robust against bounded disturbances. The control performance of an example AUV, using the proposed method, is evaluated through computer simulations. These simulation studies, which consider different reference trajectories, show that the proposed control scheme is robust under bounded disturbances.