Design of novel sliding-mode controller for high-velocity AUV with consideration of residual dead load

This work focuses on motion control of high-velocity autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Conventional methods are effective solutions to motion control of low-and-medium-velocity AUV. Usually not taken into consideration in the control model, the residual dead load and damping force which vary with the AUV's velocity tend to result in difficulties in motion control or even failure in convergence in the case of high-velocity movement. With full consideration given to the influence of residual dead load and changing damping force upon AUV motion control, a novel sliding-mode controller (SMC) is proposed in this work. The stability analysis of the proposed controller is carried out on the basis of Lyapunov function. The sea trials results proved the superiority of the sliding-mode controller over sigmoid-function-based controller (SFC). The novel controller demonstrated its effectiveness by achieving admirable control results in the case of high-velocity movement.