Adaptive setpoint control of underwater vehicle-manipulator systems

In this paper, we propose a class of simple adaptive setpoint controllers for underwater vehicle-manipulator systems (UVMS). The proposed controllers do not require any knowledge of the inertia matrix, Coriolis and centripetal force, and hydrodynamic damping except the gravity regressor. In addition, we also address the problem of uncertainty in manipulator kinematics, which has not been considered in the literature of control of UVMS. By using Lyapunov´s direct method and LaSalle´s invariance principle, we characterize the class of controllers and provide simple explicit conditions on the controller gains to ensure stability. Simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controllers.