A Distributed Parallel Motion Control for the Multi-Thruster Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Abstract

Based on the study of decoupled dynamics characteristics of the autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), A Distributed Parallel Motion Control system (DPMC) merged with distributed control and field bus technology for multi-thruster AUV was presented in this paper. It acts based on the distributed parallel hardware architecture and decoupled control algorithm for easy implementation, and then the sliding-mode control (SMC) had been presented for system control due to its robustness. Simulation experiments were conducted to verify the proposed control algorithms. Compared with the PID controllers, the system performances, including the stability and robustness, had been improved obviously by the SMC. It's suitable for such high nonlinear, dynamics and disturbed systems as AUVs. In order to illustrate the effectiveness of the whole control system, sea tests had been carried out also; both simulation and experimental results show the proposed system and controller can work effectively and efficiently.

Keywords:

• AUV
• Distributed parallel control
• Motion control
• Multi-thruster
• Sliding mode

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work is partially supported by the High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2006AA09Z231), Natural Science Foundation of China (41176076, 51075377, 50905170), the Science and Technology Development Program of Shandong Province (2008GG1055011, BS2009HZ006), Zhejiang Natural Science Foundation (R1100015), and Open foundation (GZKF-201017) of State Key Lab of Fluid Power and Mechatronics Systems in Zhejiang University.

Notes

^#Communicated by E. Zahariev.