Energy-based trajectory tracking control for underwater vehicles subject to disturbances with actuator partial faults and bounded input

Abstract

This paper presents an energy-based trajectory tracking control for a fully actuated underwater vehicle using a Hamiltonian-like framework and an asymmetric bounded control input. The following controller design criteria are addressed: effect of thruster faults, disturbances, and model uncertainties of the vehicle. The main ingredient for the design of the proposed controller has been a time-delay estimation (TDE) approach. Global asymptotic stability is ensured when the above controller design criteria are not considered in the plant model, and the boundedness of the closed-loop system variables is achieved when they are present and influence its behavior. Simulations are shown to illustrate the performance of the proposed controller on an underwater vehicle model.