Global path following control for unmanned underwater vehicles

The horizontal nonlinear path following control problem is studied. The Serret-Frenet coordinate originating at the free reference point on the path is used to describe the path following errors and their dynamic model, solving the singularity problem in the classic method. The yaw angle is treated as the control input of path following errors, and the stabilization function is designed. The path following errors is proved to be globally asymptotically stable with properly choosing the rate of the path curve parameter. The simulation studies with the linear and circular reference pathes demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed path following controller.