Robust adaptive path following control of autonomous underwater vehicle with uncertainties and communication bandwidth limitation

This article investigates the path-following control problem for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) subject to external disturbances and unknown model parameters. An event-triggered model-free adaptive control (ETMFAC) method is designed with a practical experimental platform. Firstly, a line-of-sight (LOS) guidance law is employed to obtain the desired heading angle for the AUV. Secondly, an improved model-free adaptive control method is used, in which an adaptive law is introduced to compensate for the effects caused by external disturbances. Subsequently, an event-triggering mechanism that can reduce the communication and calculation burden of the control system is proposed. As for the state mutation caused by variable disturbances, an adaptive triggering threshold is designed based on the state vector of the AUV to maintain satisfactory following performance. The stability of the control system is proved by theoretical analysis. Finally, both numerical simulations and practical experiments are conducted to evaluate the efficacy and prove the superiority of the proposed method.

Automated summary

This article investigates the path-following control problem for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) subject to external disturbances and unknown model parameters. It proposes an event-triggered model-free adaptive control (ETMFAC) method with a practical experimental platform, employing a line-of-sight (LOS) guidance law and an improved model-free adaptive control method. The stability of the control system is proved by theoretical analysis, and the superiority of the proposed method is verified through numerical simulations and practical experiments.