Novel adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller for depth control of an underwater vehicles

This paper presents a novel approach to the design of an adaptive fuzzy sliding mode controller for depth control of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). So far, AUV´s dynamics are highly nonlinear and the hydrodynamic coefficients of the vehicles are difficult to estimate, because of the variations of these coefficients with different operating conditions. These kinds of difficulties cause modeling inaccuracies of AUV´s dynamics. So that, an adaptive fuzzy sliding mode control with novel fuzzy adaptation technique is proposed for regulating vertical positioning in presence of parametric uncertainty and disturbances. In this approach, two fuzzy approximator are employed in such a way that slope of the linear sliding surface is updated by first fuzzy approximator, to shape tracking error dynamics in the sliding regime, while second fuzzy approximator change the supports of the output fuzzy membership function in the defuzzification inference module of fuzzy sliding mode control (FSMC) algorithm. Simulation results shows that, the reaching time and tracking error in the approaching phase can be significantly reduced with chattering problem can also be eliminated. The effectiveness of proposed control strategy and its advantages are indicated in comparison with conventional sliding mode control and FSMC technique.