Global stabilization of an underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle via logic-based switching

The paper considers the problem of global stabilization of an underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to a point, with a desired orientation. Controllability and stabilizability properties of the vehicle model are discussed and a logic-based hybrid controller is proposed that yields global convergence of the AUV to an arbitrarily small neighborhood of the target point. Convergence and stability of the closed loop system are analyzed. To illustrate the control law developed, simulation results are presented using the model of the Sirene AUV.