Three-Dimensional Trajectory Tracking for Underactuated Quadrotor-like Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Subject to Input Saturation

Abstract

This paper focuses on the design of a three-dimensional trajectory tracking controller for underactuated quadrotor-like autonomous underwater vehicles (QAUVs) subject to actuator saturation. A hand position method with a signum function is proposed to handle the under-actuation of QAUVs, while avoiding trajectory tracking in the opposite direction. The dynamic surface control (DSC) technique is integrated to eliminates the complexity explosion problem of standard backstepping. An auxiliary dynamic system is employed to handle input saturation. By using Lyapunov stability theory and phase plane analysis, it is proved that the proposed control law ensures that the QAUVs converge to the desired position with arbitrarily small errors, while guaranteeing the uniform ultimate boundedness of the whole closed-loop system. Comparative simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed control law.

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