3D Path Following Control of an Autonomous Underwater Robotic Vehicle Using Backstepping Approach Based Robust State Feedback Optimal Control Law

Abstract

This work renders the design of a robust state feedback optimal control strategy for an Autonomous Underwater Robotic Vehicle (AURV). The control strategy is developed using a polytopic approach based on hydrodynamic parameter variation. Besides, a backstepping approach is designed to control the kinematics of the system. However, the dynamics of the AURV system are controlled by a robust optimal control technique. In this work, the decoupled systems for both horizontal and vertical dynamics of AURV are used for the development of the control algorithms. Furthermore, the 3-D path following is achieved by integrating the control algorithms of both horizontal and vertical dynamics of AURV. The proposed controller is formulated using semi-definite programming (SDP). To track the 3-D path, it is intended to track both the desired depth and desired yaw in diving and steering planes. The simulation studies are conducted through MATLAB/Simulink environment using the YALMIP tool. Furthermore, the robust behavior of the proposed control algorithm is verified by considering the uncertain hydrodynamic parameters.