Autonomous homing and docking tasks for an underwater vehicle

Abstract

This paper 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.

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Identifiers

ORCID for P. A. Wilson: orcid.org/0000-0002-6939-682X

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