Control of fully actuated UUV using a linear interpolation approach

This work addresses the problem of tracking a desired trajectory for fully actuated unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs). A trajectory tracking controller designed originally for mobile robotic systems is applied for the control of fully actuated UUV by a linear interpolation based methodology. Particularly, a typical nonlinear multivariable system-an UUV-is represented and analyzed directly without a coordinate transformation. The methodology is conceptually simple and the calculation of the control actions for an optimal operation of the system is easy to implement by solving a system of linear equations. The proofs of convergence to zero of the tracking errors are achieved here and simulations for a constant velocity trajectory, i.e. a circle, and a time-varying velocity one, i.e. a sinusoidal path, are presented. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the methodology and the good performance of the proposed controller.