Path Planning under Constraints and Path Following Control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle with Dynamical Uncertainties and Wave Disturbances

Abstract

The path planning and following control problems of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in three-dimension (3D) are studied in this paper. In order to realize obstacle avoidance and path optimization, a path planning method based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) and cubic spline interpolation is developed. The curvature of the path obtained by this method is continuous, which can not only avoid obstacles but also meet the constraint of AUV’s minimum radius of rotation. In the design of kinematics controller, an optimal guidance scheme based on model predictive control (MPC) is proposed, which takes into account the wave disturbances. Adaptive dynamical sliding mode control (ADSMC) technology is used to design dynamic controller, which can effectively overcome the influence of model uncertainties. In order to ensure the stability of the system, the stability condition of MPC is designed, and the stability of the closed-loop system is analyzed by applying cascade system theory. The control strategy proposed in this paper is compared with the line-of-sight (LOS) guidance through simulation experiment. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed control strategy can not only improve the quality of path following, but also reduce the disturbance of waves, and thus is more conducive to energy saving.