Nonlinear Attitude Control of a Spherical Underwater Vehicle.
In this work, we present the design, implementation, and testing of an attitude control system based on State Feedback Linearization (FL) of a prototype spherical underwater vehicle. The vehicle is characterized by a manifold design thruster configuration for both locomotion and maneuvering, as well as on a novel pendulum-based passive pitch control mechanism. First, the mechanical design and onboard electronics set up of the spherically shaped hull are introduced. Afterward, a high-fidelity dynamic model of the system is derived for a 6 degree-of-freedom (DOF) underwater vehicle, followed by several experiments that have been performed in a controlled environment to compare the performance of the proposed control method to that of a baseline Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller. Experimental results demonstrate that while both controllers were able to perform the specified maneuvers, the FL controller outperforms the PID in terms of precision and time response.
['Fernandez|Ramon A Suarez|RAS|', 'R|E Andres Parra|EAP|0000-0001-6595-5420', 'Milosevic|Zorana|Z|', 'Dominguez|Sergio|S|0000-0002-9498-5407', 'Rossi|Claudio|C|0000-0002-8740-2453']
feedback linearization AUV mine exploration spherical robots underwater robots