A bio-inspired kinematic model of AUV tracking control for ocean current

A bio-inspired kinematic model of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in the horizontal plane is addressed in the paper. A nonlinear controller is presented to drive AUV onto a predefined path at a constant forward speed in the presence of ocean current disturbance. The biologically inspired shunting model is capable of generating real-time smooth forward and angular velocities, which successfully resolve the speed jump problem arising from sudden changes of AUV tracking errors in conventional method. Lyapunov stability theory is used to establish the stability of the control system. The effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed control strategy are demonstrated through simulations.