Trajectory tracking with quaternion-based attitude representation for autonomous underwater vehicle based on terminal sliding mode control

Abstract

This paper addresses trajectory tracking control problem for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) using quaternion-based attitude representation. A quaternion based adaptive non-singular terminal sliding mode control scheme is proposed for an AUV subject to ocean current and modelling uncertainty. At first, kinematic equations of the translational and rotational motions are described by unit quaternions. And then, a class of modified non-singular terminal sliding mode surface is developed by smoothly switching into a non-singular sliding mode surface formed by sinusoidal functions when the tracking error reaches a small range of the origin. The finite-time convergences of both the position tracking error and quaternion error are proved based on Lyapunov theory. Finally, the proposed control scheme is applied on a typical fully-actuated AUV to perform simulations. And the simulation results illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control scheme in comparison with another terminal sliding mode control algorithm.