Underwater vehicle technology: the European project (FREESUB)

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Description/Abstract

This paper outlines the working of the Marie Curie research network funded by the European Network and as an example of the outcome of the research briefly introduces a strategy for autonomous homing and docking tasks using an autonomous underwater vehicle. The control and guidance based path following for those tasks are described in this work. A standard sliding mode for controller design is briefly given. The method provides robust motion control efforts for an underwater vehicle’s decoupled system whilst minimising chattering effects. In a guidance system, the vector field based on a conventional artificial potential field method gives a desired trajectory with a use of existing information from sensors in the network. A well structured Line-of-Sight method is used for an AUV to follow the path. It provides guidance for an AUV to follow the predefined trajectory to a required position with the final desired orientation at the dock. Integration of a control and guidance system provides a complete system for this application. Simulation studies are illustrated in the paper