Guidance-based path following for autonomous underwater vehicles

This paper addresses the problem of path following for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) by utilizing a novel guidance-based approach. Termed guidance-based path following, the proposed approach is equally applicable for sea, land and air vehicles. This relates to the fact that the core guidance laws are developed at an ideal, dynamics-independent level, entailing generally valid laws uninfluenced by the particularities of any specific dynamics case. The laws can subsequently be tailored to specific target systems like AUVs. A nonlinear, model-based velocity and attitude controller, which depends fully on the guidance system reference signals in order to fulfil the guidance-based path following task objectives, is proposed for the purpose of controlling both fully actuated and underactuated AUVs. The resulting guidance and control scheme renders all regular paths feasible, and simulation results successfully demonstrate its capability.