Adaptive Sensor-Fault Tolerant Control of Unmanned Underwater Vehicles With Input Saturation

This paper investigates the tracking control problem for unmanned underwater vehicles(UUVs)systems with sensor faults,input saturation,and external disturbance caused by waves and ocean currents.An active sensor fault-tolerant control scheme is proposed.First,the developed method only requires the inertia matrix of the UUV,without other dynamic information,and can handle both additive and multiplicative sensor faults.Subsequently,an adaptive fault-tolerant controller is designed to achieve asymptotic tracking control of the UUV by employing robust integral of the sign of error feedback method.It is shown that the effect of sensor faults is online estimated and compensated by an adaptive estimator.With the proposed controller,the tracking error and estimation error can asymptotically converge to zero.Finally,simulation results are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Consensus of multiple autonomous underwater vehicles with double independent Markovian switching topologies and timevarying delays

A new method in which the consensus algorithm is used to solve the coordinate control problems of leaderless multiple autonomous underwater vehicles(multi-AUVs) with double independent Markovian switching communication topologies and time-varying delays among the underwater sensors is investigated.This is accomplished by first dividing the communication topology into two different switching parts,i.e.,velocity and position,to reduce the data capacity per data package sent between the multi-AUVs in the ocean.Then,the state feedback linearization is used to simplify and rewrite the complex nonlinear and coupled mathematical model of the AUVs into a double-integrator dynamic model.Consequently,coordinate control of the multi-AUVs is regarded as an approximating consensus problem with various time-varying delays and velocity and position topologies.Considering these factors,sufficient conditions of consensus control are proposed and analyzed and the stability of the multi-AUVs is proven by Lyapunov-Krasovskii theorem.Finally,simulation results that validate the theoretical results are presented.

Adaptive Controller Design for Dynamic Maneuvers of High Speed Underwater Vehicles

The control synthesis of the high-speed underwater vehicle faces many technical challenges due to its inherent structure and surrounding operational environment.In this paper,the dynamical behavior is firstly described through a bifurcation analysis to give some insights for robust control synthesis.Then a novel adaptive fractional-order sliding mode controller(AFOSMC)is realized to effectively manipulate the supercavitating vehicle against payload changes,nonlinear planing force,and external disturbances.The fractional order(FO)calculus can offer more flexibility and more freedom for tuning active control synthesis than the integer-order counterpart.In addition,the adaptation law has been presented to directly handle the payload change effects.The stability of the controlled vehicle system is proven via Lyapunov stability theory.Next,the dynamic performance of the proposed controller is verified through extensive simulation results,which demonstrate the control accuracy with faster responses compared with existing integer-order controllers.Finally,the proposed fractional order controllers can provide higher performance than their integer order counterparts with control algorithms.

Multiple Unmanned Underwater Vehicles Consensus Control with Unmeasurable Velocity Information and Environmental Disturbances Under Switching Directed Topologies

A consensus algorithm proposed in the paper is applied to tackle remarkable problems of unmeasurable velocities,the environmental disturbances, and the limited communication environment for the multiple unmanned underwater vehicles(multi-UUVs). Firstly, for a complex nonlinear and coupled model of the unmanned underwater vehicle(UUV), a technique of feedback linearization is developed to transform the nonlinear UUV model into a secondorder integral UUV model. Secondly, to address the problem of the unavailable velocity information and environmental disturbances for the multi-UUVs system, we design a distributed extended state observer(DESO) to estimate the unmeasurable velocities and environmental disturbances using the relative position information. Finally,we propose a protocol based on the estimation information from the DESO and demonstrate that the multi-UUVs system with the switching directed topologies under the protocol can reach consensus asymptotically. The theoretical result proposed in the literature is verified by one numerical example.

Model Based Adaptive Control and Disturbance Compensation for Underwater Vehicles

Underwater vehicles are being emphasized as highly integrated and intelligent devices for a significant number of oceanic operations. However, their precise operation is usually hindered by disturbances from a tether or manipulator because their propellers are unable to realize a stable suspension. A dynamic multi-body model-based adaptive controller was designed to allow the controller of the vehicle to observe and compensate for disturbances from a tether or manipulator. Disturbances, including those from a tether or manipulator, are deduced for the observation of the controller. An analysis of a tether disturbance covers the conditions of the surface, the underwater area, and the vehicle end point. Interactions between the vehicle and manipulator are mainly composed of coupling forces and restoring moments.To verify the robustness of the controller, path-following experiments on a streamlined autonomous underwater vehicle experiencing various disturbances were conducted in Song Hua Lake in China. Furthermore,path-following experiments for a tethered open frame remote operated vehicle were verified for accurate cruising with a controller and an observer, and vehicle and manipulator coordinate motion control during the simulation and experiments verified the effectiveness of the controller and observer for underwater operation. This study provides instructions for the control of an underwater vehicle experiencing disturbances from a tether or manipulator.

Cooperative Navigation for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Based on Estimation of Motion Radius Vectors

A cooperative navigation algorithm for a group of autonomous underwater vehicles is proposed on the basis of motion radius vector estimation.Combined the dead reckoning data with the mutual range data through an acoustic communication network among the group members, the relative positioning problem can be solved. A novel approach for solving the relative positioning is presented by using a recursive trigonometry technique and extended Kalman filter(EKF). Simulation results verify the correctness and effectiveness of this navigation method.

On the Study of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles by Computational Fluid-Dynamics

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV’s) are considered as advanced classes of vehicles, capable of performing pre-established missions without physical communication with the ground or human assistance. The research and development of this type of vehicles have been motivated, due to its excellent characteristics, ideal to the military, scientific and industrial sectors. Thus, the objective of this paper is to study fluid flow behavior past over AUV’s, without and with control surfaces (rudders), by Computational Fluid-Dynamics (CFD), aiming to obtain information about the impact of the operating depth and control surfaces on the vehicle's hydrodynamics, in order to help researchers and designers of this class of vehicles. Results of the drag coefficient, pressure, velocity and streamlines distribution around the vehicles are presented and analyzed.

Three-Dimensional Trajectory Tracking Control of Underactuated Autonomous Underwater Vehicles with Input Saturation

This paper addresses a three-dimensional(3D)trajectory tracking problem of underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs)subjected to input saturation and external disturbances.The proposed controller can achieve practical convergence of tracking errors for general reference trajectories,including persistently exciting(PE)time varying trajectories and fixed points.At first,a modified error state formulation is introduced to tackle the situation that desired velocities do not satisfy PE condition.Then,on the basis of the backstepping technique and a Nussbaum-type even function,a saturated controller is designed so that the tracking errors can converge to a bounded neighborhood of the origin.The stability analysis based on Lyapunov theory shows that the tracking errors are globally ultimately uniformly bounded.Finally,some simulation results illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control strategy.

Fixed-Time Leader-Following Formation Control of Fully-Actuated Underwater Vehicles Without Velocity Measurements

This paper is concerned with formation control of fully-actuated underwater vehicles(FUVs),focusing on improving system convergence speed and overcoming velocity measurement limitation.By employing the fixed-time control theory and command filtering technique,a full state feedback formation algorithm is proposed,which makes the follower track the leader in a given time with all signals in the system globally practically stabilized in fixed time.To avoid degraded control performance due to inaccurate velocity measurement,a fixed-time convergent observer is designed to estimate the velocity of FUVs.Then the authors give an observer-based fixed-time control method,with which acceptable formation performance can be achieved in fixed time without velocity measurement.The effectiveness and performance of the proposed method are demonstrated by numerical simulations.

Equidistance target-following controller for underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles

Purpose–Autonomous Underwater Vehicles(AUVs)play a crucial role in marine biology research and oceanic natural resources exploration.Since most AUVs are underactuated they require sophisticated trajectory planning and tracking algorithms.The purpose of this paper is to develop a new method that allows an underactuated AUV to track a moving object while constraining the approach to a direction tangent to the path of the target.Furthermore,the distance at which the AUV follows the target is constrained,reducing the probability of detection and unwanted behavior change of the target.Design/methodology/approach–First,a kinematic controller that generates a trajectory tangent to the path of the moving target is designed such that the AUV maintains a prescribed distance and approaches the target from behind.Using a Lyapunov based method the stability of the kinematic controller is proven.Second,a dynamic sliding mode controller is employed to drive the vehicle on the trajectory computed in the first step.Findings–The kinematic and dynamic controllers are shown to be stable and robust against parameter uncertainty in the dynamic model of the vehicle.Results of numerical simulations for equidistant tracking of a target on both smooth and discontinuous derivatives trajectories for a variety of relative initial positions and orientations are shown.Originality/value–The contribution of this research is development of a new method for path planning and tracking of moving targets for underactuated AUVs in the horizontal plane.The method allows control of both the direction of approach and the distance from a moving object.

Two-Stage Scheme for Disturbance Rejection Hovering Control of Underwater Vehicles

A two-stage model-independent hovering control scheme for underwater vehicles,which are subject to unknown yet constant external disturbance,to eliminate steady-state depth error is proposed.Proportionalderivative(PD)state feedback control law is adopted as the ballast mass planner at the first stage for the vehicle to reach both hydrostatic balance and a steady depth.The residual depth error is then removed by an additional disturbance rejection control at the second stage.Global asymptotic stability of the whole system is guaranteed via Lyapunov approach.The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is illustrated by the simulation of diving control of an underwater vehicle with hydraulic variable ballast system.

T-S Fuzzy Model-Based Depth Control of Underwater Vehicles

A T-S fuzzy model with two rules is established to exactly describe the nonlinear uncertain heave dynamics of underwater vehicles with bounded heave speed.A single linear-matrix-inequality-based (LMI-based) state feedback controller is then synthesized to guarantee the global stability of the depth control system.Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach in comparison with linear-quadratic regulator (LQR) method.Nonlinear disturbance observer is appended to the system when the underwater vehicles are affected by the gravity-buoyancy imbalance.The two-stage control method is effective to stabilize an uncertain system with both parameter uncertainties and external disturbances.

Evaluating acoustic communication performance of micro autonomous underwater vehicles in confined spaces

Micro-sized autonomous underwater vehicles(μAUVs) are well suited to various applications in confined underwater spaces. Acoustic communication is required for many application scenarios of μAUVs to enable data transmission without surfacing. This paper presents the integration of a compact acoustic communication device with a μAUV prototype. Packet reception rate(PRR) and bit error rate(BER) of the acoustic communication link are evaluated in a confined pool environment through experiments while the μAUV is either stationary or moving.We pinpoint several major factors that impact the communication performance. Experimental results show that the multi-path effect significantly affects the synchronization signals of the communication device. The relative motion between the vehicle and the base station also degrades the communication performance. These results suggest future methods towards improvements.

Submarine Hunter: Efficient and Secure Multi-Type Unmanned Vehicles

Utilizing artificial intelligence(AI)to protect smart coastal cities has become a novel vision for scientific and industrial institutions.One of these AI technologies is using efficient and secure multi-environment Unmanned Vehicles(UVs)for anti-submarine attacks.This study’s contribution is the early detection of a submarine assault employing hybrid environment UVs that are controlled using swarm optimization and secure the information in between UVs using a decentralized cybersecurity strategy.The Dragonfly Algorithm is used for the orientation and clustering of the UVs in the optimization approach,and the Re-fragmentation strategy is used in the Network layer of the TCP/IP protocol as a cybersecurity solution.The research’s noteworthy findings demonstrate UVs’logistical capability to promptly detect the target and address the problem while securely keeping the drone’s geographical information.The results suggest that detecting the submarine early increases the likelihood of averting a collision.The dragonfly strategy of sensing the position of the submersible and aggregating around it demonstrates the reliability of swarm intelligence in increasing access efficiency.Securing communication between Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs)improves the level of secrecy necessary for the task.The swarm navigation is based on a peer-to-peer system,which allows each UAV to access information from its peers.This,in turn,helps the UAVs to determine the best route to take and to avoid collisions with other UAVs.The dragonfly strategy also increases the speed of the mission by minimizing the time spent finding the target.

A Comprehensive Review of Path Planning Algorithms for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

The underwater path planning problem deals with finding an optimal or sub-optimal route between an origin point and a termination point in marine environments.The underwater environment is still considered as a great challenge for the path planning of autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs)because of its hostile and dynamic nature.The major constraints for path planning are limited data transmission capability,power and sensing technology available for underwater operations.The sea environment is subjected to a large set of challenging factors classified as atmospheric,coastal and gravitational.Based on whether the impact of these factors can be approximated or not,the underwater environment can be characterized as predictable and unpredictable respectively.The classical path planning algorithms based on artificial intelligence assume that environmental conditions are known apriori to the path planner.But the current path planning algorithms involve continual interaction with the environment considering the environment as dynamic and its effect cannot be predicted.Path planning is necessary for many applications involving AUVs.These are based upon planning safety routes with minimum energy cost and computation overheads.This review is intended to summarize various path planning strategies for AUVs on the basis of characterization of underwater environments as predictable and unpredictable.The algorithms employed in path planning of single AUV and multiple AUVs are reviewed in the light of predictable and unpredictable environments.

Integrated navigation for autonomous underwater vehicles in aquaculture: A review

Aquaculture is the world’s fastest growing sector within the food industry,supplying humans with over half their aquatic products.Water quality monitoring or cage inspection is an indispensable part in aquaculture and is usually done manually.Autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs)are increasingly being used in aquaculture as technology advances and the cost reduction.Autonomous navigation is considered as a basic function of AUVs but is a challenging issue primarily due to the attenuated nature of electromagnetic waves in water and unstructured underwater environments.An inertial navigation system(INS)is usually selected as the core navigation equipment for AUV navigation because it never fails to measure.This paper reviews and surveys the latest advances in integrated navigation technologies for AUVs and provides a comprehensive reference for researchers who intend to apply AUVs to autonomous monitoring of aquaculture.Pure INS has difficulty obtaining long-range precision navigation due to the inherent error accumulation of inertial sensors over time;aiding inertial navigation systems with auxiliary sensors are common means to improve the navigation accuracy of an INS for AUVs.The survey is conducted according to different assisted navigation technologies for inertial navigation.Finally,the future challenges of the AUV navigation are also presented.

Dynamic System Identification of Underwater Vehicles Using Multi-output Gaussian Processes

Non-parametric system identification with Gaussian processes for underwater vehicles is explored in this research with the purpose of modelling autonomous underwater vehicle(AUV) dynamics with a low amount of data. Multi-output Gaussian processes and their aptitude for modelling the dynamic system of an underactuated AUV without losing the relationships between tied outputs are used. The simulation of a first-principle model of a Remus 100 AUV is employed to capture data for the training and validation of the multi-output Gaussian processes. The metric and required procedure to carry out multi-output Gaussian processes for AUV with 6 degrees of freedom(DoF) is also shown in this paper. Multi-output Gaussian processes compared with the popular technique of recurrent neural network show that multi-output Gaussian processes manage to surpass RNN for non-parametric dynamic system identification in underwater vehicles with highly coupled DoF with the added benefit of providing the measurement of confidence.

H_∞ Autopilot Design for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

The design approach of H∞ autopilot for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) is proposed. Comprised by the three sub-controllers,i.e. speed,heading and depth controllers,the designed autopilot has advantage over existing H∞ control of AUVs. The overshoot in speed,heading and depth control systems under step commands is restricted by refining the weighting function for robust stability. The dynamic performance of heading and depth control systems is improved by feeding back yaw rate and pitch angle,respectively. To evaluate the design approach,it is then utilized to synthesize the autopilot for flight control of Subzero Ⅲ,a low cost test-bed for AUV control techniques. Both simulations and water trails verify the effectiveness of the design approach.

Solution to Long-Range Continuous and Precise Positioning in Deep Ocean for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Using Acoustic Range Estimation and Inertial Sensor Measurements

Although advances in research into autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs)have been made to extend their working depth and endurance,underwater experiments and missions remain to be restricted by the positioning performance of AUVs.With the Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)precluded due to the rapid attenuation of radio signals in underwater environments,acoustic positioning methods serve as an effective substitution.A long-range continuous and precise positioning solution for AUVs in deep ocean is proposed in this study,relying on acoustic signals from beacons at the same depth and aided by onboard inertial sensors.A signal system is investigated to provide time of arrival(TOA)estimation in a resolution of milliseconds.Without pre-knowledge or local measurement of the accurate sound speed,an AUV is enabled to continuously locate its horizontal position based on rough ranges estimated by an iterative least square(ILS)based algorithm.For better accuracy and robustness,range deviations are compensated with a reference point of known position and outliers in the trajectory are eliminated by an implementation of the extended Kalman filter(EKF)coupled with the state-acceptance filter.The solution is evaluated in simulation experiments with environmental information measured on the spot,providing an average position error from ground truth below 10 m with a standard deviation below 5 m.

Switched Three-Dimensional Decoupling Stabilization of Underactuated Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

A three-dimensional stabilization problem for underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles(AUVs)is addressed in this paper.A novel coordinate transformation form consisting of state modifications and input transformations is introduced such that the whole system is divided into two decoupled one-order subsystems.Some switching functions are presented to further decouple the underactuated dynamics and to produce persistently exciting(PE)signals for those underactuated states.Based on the aforementioned results,a quite simple control law is designed to achieve global three-dimensional asymptotic convergence of all states of underactuated AUVs.Comparative simulations are carried out to validate the effectiveness and performance of the proposed control scheme.