Motion control and way-point tracking of a biomimetic underwater vehicle

AUVs with rigid hulls and powered by rotary propellers have problems such as low propulsion efficiency, difficulties in positioning, agile turning, and precise hovering. Research and development into biomimetic AUVs (BAUVs) is growing in order to overcome the problems of AUVs. A BAUV testbed is being developed. Our BAUV testbed is composed of several links and joints. We develop a local control law that coordinates body angles by periodically alternating the position of the center-of-mass in the local coordinate. We have found that three parameters are sufficient to coordinate joint angles to perform the carangiform swimming. We then develop a global control law for the way-point tracking problem. The effectiveness of this method is evaluated by computer simulation. Control performance of the BAUV system with model uncertainties to track way-points under the influence of disturbances is also discussed.