Model predictive control of buoyancy propelled autonomous underwater glider

Autonomous underwater gliders (AUG) is a cost-effective and efficient tool for oceanic exploration and discovery. Because of limited onboard computation and sensing capability and energy constraint, the AUGs are susceptible to oceanic disturbances. In this paper, we present a model predictive control (MPC) design to compensate for the drift due to disturbances. We first validate the three-dimensional AUG nonlinear dynamic model with experimental data. To enhance the control performance, a time suspension technique is designed and integrated with the MPC to guarantee the AUG to follow a given path rather than time-dependent trajectory. We simulate and compare the MPC-based controller with the experimental data obtained by the onboard PID controller. The comparison results confirm superior performance than the onboard PID controller.