Safe Path Following Control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Based on Double Dipole Vector Field

This paper studies a path following problem of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) in complex and harsh working environment. Firstly, a kinematic model of an AUV in the vertical plane is built by constructing an earth coordinate system and a body coordinate system. Secondly, a guidance pitch angle is proposed by using a double dipole vector field, and guidance speeds are designed based on the back-stepping method. Finally, the stability of the proposed control system is proved by Lyapunov stability theory. Simulation results verify the effectiveness of the real-time safe path following control of autonomous underwater vehicles based on double dipole vector field.