Model-Free High-Order Sliding Mode Controller for Station-Keeping of an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle in Manipulation Task: Simulations and Experimental Validation

Abstract

The use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) has expanded in recent years to include inspection, maintenance, and repair missions. For these tasks, the vehicle must maintain its position while inspections or manipulations are performed. Some station-keeping controllers for AUVs can be found in the literature that exhibits robust performance against external disturbances. However, they are either model-based or require an observer to deal with the disturbances. Moreover, most of them have been evaluated only by numerical simulations. In this paper, the feasibility of a model-free high-order sliding mode controller for the station-keeping problem is validated. The proposed controller was evaluated through numerical simulations and experiments in a semi-Olympic swimming pool, introducing external disturbances that remained unknown to the controller. Results have shown robust performance in terms of the root mean square error (RMSE) of the vehicle position. The simulation resulted in the outstanding station-keeping of the BlueROV2 vehicle, as the tracking errors were kept to zero throughout the simulation, even in the presence of strong ocean currents. The experimental results demonstrated the robustness of the controller, which was able to maintain the RMSE in the range of 1–4 cm for the depth of the vehicle, outperforming related work, even when the disturbance was large enough to produce thruster saturation.

Cooperative Control of Underwater Vehicle–Manipulator Systems Based on the SDC Method

“…Knowing the motion, determine which force 𝑓 ∑ 𝑓 , should be applied to the object to provide the desired movement. After that, this force is distributed between manipulators in proportion according to (11) and ( 12); 3. Based on the desired motion of the object, the problem of determining the desired motion of the working tools of manipulators is solved through (9).…”

“…However, there is an increasing interest for their use in inspection, maintenance, and repair operations that require manipulation and interaction with objects in the underwater environment. Nowadays, this is mainly performed by remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) [11] and one of the strongest research trends regards the use of Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator Systems (UVMS) [12,13]. Underwater vehicle-manipulator systems (UVMS) can fulfill underwater sampling, grabbing, operation, and other tasks in addition to observation.…”

Adaptive nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode control for the tracking control of underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles

“…In the literature, different control methods have been suggested to control the motion of underwater vehicles. The recent advanced control approaches like backstepping control, 5 fuzzy control, 6 time delay control (TDC), 7 neural network control, 8 sliding mode control (SMC), 9–11 higher-order sliding mode control (HSMC), 12 H ∞ control, 13 model predictive control (MPC), 14 adaptive control, 15 and the combination of these control approaches are utilized to enhance the tracking efficiency of these vehicles.…”

Real-Time Implementation of the Prescribed Performance Tracking Control for Magnetic Levitation Systems

“…In order to handle the influences of uncertainties and exterior disturbances, sliding mode control (SMC) with powerful and immutable properties can be employed effectively. In recent years, SMC has been successfully applied for a wide range of practical applications such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) [ 8 , 9 , 10 ], autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], robotic manipulators [ 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ], and so on. In the approach stage, SMC cannot maintain uniform characteristics due to the existence of unidentified uncertain elements.…”