Title: Three-dimensional trajectory tracking control of underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles

Authors: Zhenzhong Chu; Xuan Zhang; Daqi Zhu

Addresses: Department of Logistics Engineering College, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Maritime Search and Rescue and Underwater Vehicles, 1550 Haigang Avenue, Shanghai, 201306, China ' Department of Logistics Engineering College, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Maritime Search and Rescue and Underwater Vehicles, 1550 Haigang Avenue, Shanghai, 201306, China ' Department of Logistics Engineering College, Shanghai Maritime University, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Intelligent Maritime Search and Rescue and Underwater Vehicles, 1550 Haigang Avenue, Shanghai, 201306, China

Abstract: This study proposes a three-dimensional (3D) trajectory-tracking control scheme for an underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Given the 3D reference trajectory, the reference velocities, angles, angular velocities, force, and torques were planned first. These reference variables were used to obtain the error dynamics. The backstepping technique was used to design the trajectory-tracking controller for tracking the AUVs reference trajectory. According to the Lyapunov stability theory, the trajectory-tracking system was stable and bounded, and the tracking errors converged close to a small neighbourhood of zero. Finally, the effectiveness of the developed control method was demonstrated using simulations.

Keywords: AUV; autonomous underwater vehicle; three-dimensional; trajectory tracking; backstepping; trajectory planning; underactuated; motion control.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2020.115840

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2020 Vol.84 No.1/2/3/4, pp.28 - 58

Received: 03 Oct 2019
Accepted: 11 Jan 2020
Published online: 25 Jun 2021 *

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