An integrated approach to the design and analysis of navigation, guidance and control systems for autonomous underwater vehicles

This paper addresses the problem of designing guidance, navigation and control systems for Autonomous Unmanned-Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) to achieve accurate tracking of reference paths defined in a universal reference frame. The theoretical framework adopted is illustrated with a design example in which recent developments in multivariable control theory and classical results in navigation and guidance were applied to the design of a trajectory following system for the AUV MARIUS (Marine Utility Vehicle System). The key ideas in the design methodology are to clearly state performance specifications in the frequency domain and to use design tools that explicitly address these types of specifications. Thus, the natural constraint that the navigation, control and guidance systems have decreasing bandwidths, can be directly incorporated in the initial phase of the project. Analysis of the integrated system is performed using a simulation package that allows the user to assess the impact of the navigation. Guidance, and control algorithms on the dynamic behaviour of the vehicle