A sliding mode fuzzy controller for underwater vehicle-manipulator systems

In this paper, a new sliding mode controller is proposed for trajectory tracking of underwater-manipulator systems (UVMS), with gain tuning based on the fuzzy logic control approach. The sliding mode controller is designed based on the decentralized form of the dynamics of UVMS. By tuning gains with fuzzy logic, the proposed controller has the advantages that it does not require a model of the vehicle/manipulator system dynamics and ensures robust performance in the presence of disturbances and dynamic interactions. In order to validate the effectiveness of the controller, several simulations using a five degrees of freedom UVMS are performed. The results show that the proposed controller provides high performance of trajectory tracking in the presence of uncertainties about the dynamics and hydrodynamic disturbances.