Publication

Abstract : This paper tackles the challenges of tracking control pertaining to the pitch and yaw motions of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) designed in a torpedo-like configuration. To capture pitch and yaw motion dynamics, a two-degrees-of-freedom (2-DOF) nonlinear system is employed, and the devised control strategy is rooted in the Immersion and Invariance (I&I) methodology. Achieving the desired depth and steering capabilities in the underwater domain requires an effective control strategy for both pitch and yaw angles, ensuring the vehicle's stability and minimizing the influence of roll angles. The control objective is to achieve precise tracking by incorporating a stable target (first-order) dynamic system into the second-order closed-loop pitch and yaw motion dynamics. The proposed control law, based on I&I, asymptotically stabilizes the tracking position of the AUV's pitch and yaw motions. In a companion paper, the stability has been demonstrated within the framework of Lyapunov theory, and the robustness of the proposed control approach has been rigorously evaluated against parametric uncertainties and underwater disturbances in the simulation studies.