3D Path Following and L1 Adaptive Control for Underwater Vehicles

TL;DR

This paper presents a multi-level guidance and control strategy for underwater vehicles, combining 3D path-following with L1 adaptive control to enhance robustness and accuracy, validated through numerical simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multi-level control framework integrating line-of-sight path following with L1 adaptive control for underwater vehicles.

Findings

Effective 3D path following demonstrated in simulations

Robustness of control under model uncertainties shown

Performance bounds established for control algorithms

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of guidance and control of underwater vehicles. A multi-level control strategy is used to determine (1) outer-loop path-following commands and (2) inner-loop actuation commands. Specifically, a line-of-sight path-following algorithm is used to guide the vehicle along a three-dimensional path, and an $\mathcal{L}_1$ adaptive control algorithm is used to determine the low-level rudder commands to accomplish path following. The performance bounds of these outer- and inner-loop control algorithms are presented. Numerical results obtained using a physics-based Simulink model are used to aid in visualization of the control algorithm's performance.