Guidance and Control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle for Inspection of Underwater Cables

Part 2: Cable Tracking Control

Abstract

This paper deals with guidance and control of a newly developed autonomous underwater vehicle named AQUA EXPLORER 1000 for inspection of underwater telecommunication cables up to 1000m in depth. The cable tracking control in horizontal plane is discussed here performing the numerical simulations and the experiments at a towing tank.
The control strategies for the cable tracking control by use of PID controller and fuzzy controller were proposed and tested successfully under the condition of no tidal currents.
Optimization of fuzzy controller based on the mathematical dynamic model of the vehicle was successfully performed under the condition of flowing tidal currents.