Adaptive Dynamic Surface Control for a Hybrid Aerial Underwater Vehicle With Parametric Dynamics and Uncertainties

A hybrid aerial underwater vehicle (HAUV) that could operate in the air and underwater might provide tremendous potential for ocean monitoring and search and rescue as well as underwater exploration. Differences between the aerial and underwater environments, along with common disturbances in wind or oceanic currents, present key challenges when designing a robust global controller. This paper presents a nonlinear dynamic controller, otherwise known as the adaptive dynamic surface control (ADSC) scheme, which effectively deals with the challenges aroused by the nonlinearities, uncertainties, and time-varying parameters of the system. First, the mathematical model of the HAUV is developed by means of the Newton-Euler formalism, highlighting the influence of the environment change on the vehicle dynamics. Second, the variations of added mass and damping during the water/air transition are estimated. Finally, the ADSC scheme is used to control and provided robust transition between distinct mediums for the vehicle in simulations, compared with the gain-scheduled proportional-integral-derivative scheme. The simulation results validate the good tracking performance and strong robustness of the presented scheme.