Robust Path-Following Control for AUV under Multiple Uncertainties and Input Saturation

Abstract

In this paper, a robust path-following control strategy is proposed to deal with the path-following problem of the underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with multiple uncertainties and input saturation, and the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is verified by semi-physical simulation experiments. Firstly, the control laws are constructed based on the traditional backstepping method; the multiple uncertainties are treated as lumped uncertainties, which can be estimated and eliminated by the employed extended state observers (ESOs). In addition, the influence of input saturation can be compensated by the designed auxiliary dynamic compensators. Secondly, to simplify controller design and address the “complexity explosion”, two command filters are used to obtain the estimated value of the unknown sideslip angular velocity and the desired yaw angular acceleration, respectively. Finally, the superiority and robustness of the proposed control strategy are verified through computer simulation. A semi-physical simulation experiment platform is built based on the NI Compact cRIO-9068 and PLC S7-1200 to further demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy.