RBF-based supervisor path following control for ASV with time-varying ocean disturbance

1028-1036A robust model-free path following controller is developed for autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) with time-varying ocean disturbance. First, the geometrical relationship between ASV and virtual tracking point on the reference path is investigated. The differentiations of tracking errors are described with the relative motion method, which greatly simplified the direct differential of tracking errors. Furthermore, the control law for the desired angular velocity of the vehicle and virtual tracking point are built based on the Lyapunov theory. Second, the traditional proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is developed based on the desired velocities and state feedback. The radial basic function (RBF) neural network taking as inputs the desired surge velocity and yaw angular velocity is developed as the supervisor to PID controller. Besides, RBF controller tunes weights according to the output errors between the PID controller and supervisor controller, based on the gradient descent method. Hence, PID controller and RBF supervisor controller act as feedback and feed forward control of the system, respectively. Finally, comparative path following simulation for straight path and sine path illustrate the performance of the proposed supervisor control system. The PID controller term reports loss of control even in the unknown disturbance

Automatic Control and Routing of Marine Vessels

Due to the intensive development of the global economy, many problems are constantly emerging connected to the safety of ships’ motion in the context of increasing marine traffic. These problems seem to be especially significant for the further development of marine transportation services, with the need to considerably increase their efficiency and reliability. One of the most commonly used approaches to ensuring safety and efficiency is the wide implementation of various automated systems for guidance and control, including such popular systems as marine autopilots, dynamic positioning systems, speed control systems, automatic routing installations, etc. This Special Issue focuses on various problems related to the analysis, design, modelling, and operation of the aforementioned systems. It covers such actual problems as tracking control, path following control, ship weather routing, course keeping control, control of autonomous underwater vehicles, ship collision avoidance. These problems are investigated using methods such as neural networks, sliding mode control, genetic algorithms, L2-gain approach, optimal damping concept, fuzzy logic and others. This Special Issue is intended to present and discuss significant contemporary problems in the areas of automatic control and the routing of marine vessels

ETC-based control of underactuated AUVs and AUV formations in a 2D plane

This master thesis is aimed at single auv (autonomous underwater vehicle) and auv formation control in two-dimensional horizontal plane. For sake of increasing services life and saving communication resources, event-triggered mechanism is taken into consideration. two coordinate systems are introduced: earth-fixed frame and body-fixed frame. Some motion parameters and force analysis are used in the process of establishing mathematical model. then the related theorems, lemmas and control method commonly used in analyzing control systems are introduced. then, the auv control system is divided into two subsystems with cascade relationship. considering each subsystem separately, a controller is designed that can simultaneously carry out trajectory tracking and point stabilization. considering the service life of actuator equipment, an event-triggered controller was designed, which can reduce the frequency of actuator adjustment, prolong the service life of equipment. finally, combining the idea of light-of-sight method and virtual structure method, the auv formation tracking control problem is solved similarly to single auv. in deep sea conditions, an event- triggered communicating mechanism is designed to reduce the frequency of communication and adapt to limited communication resources, which balances the reliability and economy. matlab simulink is used to simulate the controller designed in the thesis, and confirms the feasibility of the controller

A robust dynamic region-based control scheme for an autonomous underwater vehicle

Intelligent control of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) requires a control scheme which is robust to external perturbations. These perturbations are highly uncertain and can prevent the AUV from accomplishing its mission. A well-known robust control called sliding mode control (SMC) and its development have been introduced. However, it produces a chattering effect which requires more energy. To overcome this problem, this paper presents a novel robust dynamic region-based control scheme. An AUV needs to be able not only to track a moving target as a region but also to position itself inside the region. The proposed controller is developed based on an adaptive sliding mode scheme. An adaptive element is useful for the AUV to attenuate the effect of external disturbances and also the chattering effect. Additionally, the application of the dynamic-region concept can reduce the energy demand. Simulations are performed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller. Furthermore, a Lyapunov-like function is presented for stability analysis. It is demonstrated that the proposed controller works better then an adaptive sliding mode without the region boundary scheme and a fuzzy sliding mode controller

Multivariable Robust Fault Tolerant Control For Work-Class Remotely Operated Vehicle

To deal with complex disturbances and the presence of partial loss of propeller effectiveness in work-class remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), a method of robust fault tolerant control is proposed, which is based on adaptive sliding mode control. In this approach, adaptive technique is employed to estimate the bounds’ information of external complex disturbances and the effectiveness loss of the propeller. And a sliding mode controller is then designed to achieve fault tolerant control and external disturbance rejection. Corresponding stability of the closed-loop control system is analyzed using Lyapunov stability theory. Apply this method to trajectory tracking control of work-class ROVs, the simulation results validate that great fault tolerant capability and a good performance of external disturbance rejection can be achieved even under partial loss of propeller effectiveness

Velocity control of ROV using modified integral SMC with optimization tuning based on Lyapunov analysis

Remotely Operated Vehicle also known as ROV is a vehicle with high nonlinearity and uncertainty parameters that requires a robust control system to maintain stability. The nonlinearity and uncertainty of ROV are caused by underwater environmental conditions and by the movement of the vehicle. SMC is one of the control systems that can overcome nonlinearity and uncertainty with the given robust system. This work aims to control velocity of the vehicle with proposes the use of modified integral SMC compensate error in ROV and the use of particle swarm optimization (PSO) to optimize the adjustment of SMC parameters. The ROV used in this paper has a configuration of six thrusters with five DoF movements that can be controlled. Modified integral sliding mode is used to control all force direction to increase the convergence of speed error. Adjustment optimization techniques with PSO are used to determine four values of sliding control parameters for five DoF. Using Lyapunov stability approach control law of sliding mode is derived and its global stability proved mathematically. Simulation results are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of Modified Integral SMC and compared with nonlinear control

State-of-the-Art System Solutions for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles

Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (UUVs) have gained popularity for the last decades, especially for the purpose of not risking human life in dangerous operations. On the other hand, underwater environment introduces numerous challenges in navigation, control and communication of such vehicles. Certainly, this fact makes the development of these vehicles more interesting and engineering-wise more attractive. In this paper, we first revisit the existing technology and methodology for the solution of aforementioned problems, then we try to come up with a system solution of a generic unmanned underwater vehicles

Underwater Vehicles

For the latest twenty to thirty years, a significant number of AUVs has been created for the solving of wide spectrum of scientific and applied tasks of ocean development and research. For the short time period the AUVs have shown the efficiency at performance of complex search and inspection works and opened a number of new important applications. Initially the information about AUVs had mainly review-advertising character but now more attention is paid to practical achievements, problems and systems technologies. AUVs are losing their prototype status and have become a fully operational, reliable and effective tool and modern multi-purpose AUVs represent the new class of underwater robotic objects with inherent tasks and practical applications, particular features of technology, systems structure and functional properties