Research on motion control of underwater vehicle

Motion control technique for underwater vehicle (UV) is conducted to improve the motion control ability. Firstly, a maximum-likelihood algorithm is utilized to estimate the hydrodynamic coefficients of the UV, and a six DOF simulation system is built up. Secondly, motion control system architecture of the UV is presented, which includes hardware and software structures. The hardware based on PC104 BUS, adopts Pentium M used as the controller's embedded CPU and all control modules work in VxWorks, which is a powerful real-time operating system. Lastly, Information flow of motion system, motion control algorithm, force allocation and dead-reckoning algorithm are also explained in detail. Experimental demonstrations are undertaken to verify that the presented motion control system can satisfy the requirements of the UV.