Robust self-organising fuzzy sliding mode-based path-following control for autonomous underwater vehicles

Abstract

A robust self-organising fuzzy sliding mode control law steers autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to track a predefined planar path at a constant speed without temporal specifications. An intelligent methodology has been adopted for path-following control to handle varying parametric uncertainties in vehicle dynamics and also conquers stringent preliminary condition constraints in several path-following control strategies illustrated in the literature. Robust controller design builds on a fusion of sliding mode control theory and fuzzy logic technique with an adaptation mechanism to tune boundary layer width and hitting gain. This novel strategy proposes two distinct tuning procedures: the first method commonly uses absolute error and their derivative as fuzzy input variables in a two-dimensional fuzzy logic rule structure. Herein, skew symmetry property is utilised in rule base structure to derive a single input fuzzy variable based on the signed distance technique, drastically reducing two-dimensional fuzzy logic rules. Since the second method provides substantial reductions in rule inferences through the use of the fuzzy rule's mirror image and the Lyapunov approach for tuning purposes, the resulting guidance control law yields fast convergence of the path-following error trajectory towards zero along with the elimination of chattering problem. Simulation results illustrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control law to achieve favourable tracking performance with a high accuracy.

Keywords:

• Self-organising fuzzy sliding mode control
• autonomous underwater vehicles
• sliding mode control
• fuzzy logic
• chattering problem

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

G. V. Lakhekar

G. V. Lakhekar received the B.E. degree in instrumentation engineering from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University, Aurangabad, India, in 2007, and the M.Tech. and Ph.D. degrees in instrumentation engineering from Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded, India, in 2009 and 2019, respectively. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, College of Engineering, Pune, Maharashtra, India. He has published eight articles in international journals and nine papers in national/international conferences. His active research interests include control of underwater robotic vehicles, sliding mode control, advanced process control, and cognitive radio. He is a Life Member of the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) and the Institution of Engineers (IE).

L. M. Waghmare

L. M. Waghmare received the B.E. and M.E. degrees from the Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute of Engineering and Technology, Nanded, India, in 1986 and 1990, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree in instrumentation engineering from IIT Roorkee, Roorkee, India, in 2001. He is currently a part of a research project sponsored by the Naval Research Board (DRDO) in progress. He is a Professor with the Department of Instrumentation Engineering, Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute of Engineering and Technology, Nanded. He is also the Dean of science and technology with Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada University, Nanded. He has one book and more than 130 publications in national/international conferences and journals to his credit. His research interests include intelligent control, process control, and image processing. He is a member of professional societies such as the Instrument Society of India (ISI), the Institution of Engineers (IE), the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), and the Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE). He was a recipient of the K. S. Krishnan Memorial National Award for the Best System Oriented Research Paper (published in IETE Journal of Research).