Description

Underwater vehicles have received an increased interest in the last decade given the multiple tasks they can accomplish in various fields ranging from scientific to industrial and military applications. In this lecture, we are particularly interested in autonomous control of Remotely Operated underwater Vehicles (ROVs). Different challenges in control of such systems arise from their inherent high nonlinearities and time varying behavior subject to hydrodynamic effects and external disturbances. In order to avoid degradation in the performance of the controlled system during a specific mission, the vehicle is expected to possess a self-tuning ability and compensate for different kinds of disturbances and uncertainties. All these aspects should be carefully taken into account during the design procedure of the control scheme. Different control solutions will be introduced and commented on showing their basics and applications. Various validations (through simulations as well as real time applications) will also be presented to show their performance, effectiveness and robustness in different operating conditions.