Nonlinear algorithm with adaptive properties to stabilize an underwater vehicle: real-time experiments

Abstract

Mini underwater vehicles becomes popular and interesting for the control community. Navigate them autonomously, it is a challenge that requires different control approaches to improve performance due to external and unknown perturbations that could be present. Our interest is to propose a robust nonlinear controller to stabilize an underwater robot. The mini submarine used in this work has some mechanical properties that increases its potential to apply it in several applications. Solving this problem requires, in a first time, the development and analysis of its dynamic model in order to design a control law. The control algorithm is based on the backstepping technique with adaptive and integral properties. The stability analysis is proved using Lyapunov functions. Graphs from simulations results introduce the good behavior of the closed-loop system even in presence of unknown and external perturbations. Experimental results confirm the well performance when applying the controller in real time.