Underwater Robot Trajectory Control Using Non-Singular Terminal Sliding Mode Controller

Sliding mode control is one of the most effective methods of controlling nonlinear systems with bounded uncertainty. Exponential convergence of tracking error is one of the most important problem of classic sliding mode control. One way to solve this problem is use of terminal sliding mode control. The great thing about terminal sliding mode control, is it’s robustness in face of model uncertainty and external disturbances while can guarantee tracking error converge to zero in finite time simultaneously. Usually terminal sliding mode controller, is limited by singularity at the origin and infinite control signal. This article attempts to the singularity problem in controlling underwater robots and decreasing the convergence time by defining a new sliding surface for terminal sliding mode controller. simulation results shows the efficiency of proposed controller as it effectively improves the convergence time and accuracy in under water robots with are faced by structural and environmental uncertainties.