ROBUST CONTROL FOR UNDERWATER VEHICLE GUIDANCE

Nowadays the control of under-actuated underwater vehicles with coupled dynamics is a research of major interest, not only but mainly due to the large number of applications in the offshore industry. In a former work, authors developed a controller exhibiting desired robustness features, which unfortunately presented a poor performance in tracking activities. To tackle this problem, a two degree of freedom robust controller using an H∞ mixed sensitivity approach as before was then developed. A Light of Sight (LOS) guidance control law was also added to face the impossibility of a straight control of position variables within the used optimal approach. Simulation results of an Underwater vehicle with six degree of freedom using the centralized controller show now strong robustness and a very good performance.