The bottom-following problem of an underactuated unmanned undersea vehicle (UUV) is addressed. A robust nonlinear controller is developed by using integral-terminal sliding mode control (ITSMC), which can exponentially drive an UUV onto a predefined path at a constant forward speed. The kinematic error equations are first derived in the Serret-Frenet frame. Using the line of sight (LOS) method, Lyapunov’s direct technique and tracking differentiator, the guidance law is established. Then, the kinematic controller, the guidance law, is expanded to cope with vehicle dynamics by resorting to introduce two integral-terminal sliding surfaces. Robustness to parameter perturbation is addressed by incorporating the reaching laws associated with the upper bound of the parameter perturbation. The proposed control law can guarantee that all error signals globally exponentially converge to the origin. Finally, a series of numerical simulation results are presented and discussed. In these simulations, wave, constant unknown ocean currents (for the purposes of the controller) and the parameter perturbation are added to illustrate the robustness and effectiveness of the bottom-following control scheme.
