Depth control of a submersible vehicle under a seaway using a noise estimator

This paper presents a new design method for submarine depth control. An autopilot strategy based on a noise estimator and an optimal controller is proposed so that the depth keeping of a submersible vehicle at slow speed under a rough sea is improved. A Luenberger observer estimates the disturbances due to the large waves, and this is fed forward into a linear quadratic Gaussian (LQG) optimal control strategy. Simulation results show how the vertical plane movement of the submarine near the surface of a choppy sea is improved