Positioning of AUV in the Presence of Underwater Currents with Visual Servoing

The problems of dynamic positioning (DP) of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV) with a control system are considered. The image-based visual servo control (IBVS) architecture for the DP equipped with a monocular video camera is used. The IBVS approach directly uses the coordinates of the object in the image plane as feedback and, thus, is inherently resistant to errors in the calibration of the camera and the target model. One of the main difficulties in designing the IBVS control system for underwater vehicles arises from uncertainties related to both the image Jacobi matrix and the dynamics of the object. The DP problem is discussed for the AUV moving in a horizontal plane, controlled either using surge or sway or surge and yaw velocities. The main attention is paid to the study of the influence of kinematics and dynamics of the AUV on the properties of a closed control system with an unlimited increase in time. The proposed results are illustrated by computer modeling.