SUMMARY This paper presents a novel numerical procedure based on the framework of isogeometric analysis for static, free vibration, and buckling analysis of laminated composite plates using the first‐order shear deformation theory. The isogeometric approach utilizes non‐uniform rational B‐splines to implement for the quadratic, cubic, and quartic elements. Shear locking problem still exists in the stiffness formulation, and hence, it can be significantly alleviated by a stabilization technique. Several numerical examples are presented to show the performance of the method, and the results obtained are compared with other available ones. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Underwater vehicles (UVs) are subjected to various environmental disturbances due to ocean currents, propulsion systems, and un-modeled disturbances. In practice, it is very challenging to design a control system to maintain UVs stayed at the desired static position permanently under these conditions. Therefore, in this study, a nonlinear dynamics and robust positioning control of the over-actuated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) under the effects of ocean current and model uncertainties are presented. First, a motion equation of the over-actuated AUV under the effects of ocean current disturbances is established, and a trajectory generation of the over-actuated AUV heading angle is constructed based on the line of sight (LOS) algorithm. Second, a dynamic positioning (DP) control system based on motion control and an allocation control is proposed. For this, motion control of the over-actuated AUV based on the dynamic sliding mode control (DSMC) theory is adopted to improve the system robustness under the effects of the ocean current and model uncertainties. In addition, the stability of the system is proved based on Lyapunov criteria. Then, using the generalized forces generated from the motion control module, two different methods for optimal allocation control module: the least square (LS) method and quadratic programming (QP) method are developed to distribute a proper thrust to each thruster of the over-actuated AUV. Simulation studies are conducted to examine the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed DP controller. The results show that the proposed DP controller using the QP algorithm provides higher stability with smaller steady-state error and stronger robustness.

Nowadays, underwater vehicles (UVs) are applied to various tasks such as carrying objects or maintenance of underwater structures. To carry out well these tasks, UVs should keep the position and orientation in the water to perform the specified tasks. However, the systems used in underwater operations are always under the influence of disturbance such as ocean currents and model uncertainties. In this paper, the robust station-keeping (SK) control algorithm based on a sliding mode control (SMC) theory is designed to guarantee stability and better performance of a hovering over-actuated autonomous underwater vehicle (HAUV) despite the existence of model uncertainties and ocean current disturbance in the horizontal plane (HP). Using the Lyapunov theorem, the stability of the proposed controller is demonstrated. Besides, an optimal allocation control (AC) algorithm is also designed to keep the linear position and Euler angles of the HAUV in the presence of model uncertainties as well as ocean currents and to minimize the energy consumption of the system. Finally, a series of simulations and experiments for the HAUV system is conducted to demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed method.INDEX TERMS over-actuated underwater vehicle, robust sliding mode controller, station-keeping control, experimental result.

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