A new path following method of AUV using line-of-sight with sideway

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new guidance law based on Line-of-Sight (LOS) guidance, i.e., Line-of-Sight-With-Sideway (LOSWS) for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with sideway motion in small water area, such as fish pond. It is able to maximize the use of kinetic characteristic in sideway and realize a more precise path following. In addition, to overcome the demerit of course angle variation which is required to “through” π-axis or -π-axis, we also propose a reference point course angle updating algorithm to implement the optimal steering path. The simulation results in MATLAB validate that the proposed methods can achieve a better performance compare to conventional LOS and PID-LOS guidance.