Model predictive control design for supercavitating vehicles with control efforts restriction

The supercavitating vehicle is enveloped almost completely by a supercavity in cruise phase, it is confronted by the stable control problems involved with the nonlinear planing force produced by reaction between the vehicle and cavity. To deal with the above problems, a supercavitating vehicle model proposed by Dzielski is employed as our research object. A series system transforms is performed and the supercavitating vehicle model is converted into Lure's form. The sufficient condition for the globally stability of system is obtained by using the Nyquist diagram based on the circle criterion. The influence on the system performance produced by the control efforts restriction is analyzed. To improve the system performance, a model predictive control strategy is employed. The simulation results show that the supercavitating vehicle system with control efforts restriction can be stabilized globally by our model predictive control strategy; and these results hold even when uncertainties in the modeling of planning force are existing.