Nonlinear cross-track control of an underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle

The cross-track control problem is studied for an underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Using the backstopping methodology, the stabilization function of the yaw angle is designed to stabilize the cross-track error as the virtual input, resulting in the cascaded subsystems of the cross-track and the yaw tracking. For the normal cross-track subsystem when the yaw and yaw rate tracking errors are zeros, the control parameter condition in the derived to make the cross-track error and the sway velocity globally asymptotically stable. More easily, the globally exponentially tracking controller is designed for the yaw tracking subsystem. Finally the globally asymptotically stability of the whole control system is proved using the cascaded systems theory. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.