Modeling and Trajectory Tracking of Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicle using Higher Order Sliding Mode Control

Higher Order Sliding Mode Control (HOSMC) strategy. Sliding Mode Control (SMC) is widely regarded as an efficient nonlinear design scheme for robust stabilization of minimum phase nonlinear control systems. The proposed control scheme in this work is based on the conventional SMC approach, however it incorporates higher-order sliding modes in control law that results in improved transient performance and reduces chattering completely while preserving its robustness characteristics. Underwater ROVs have a wide range of applications in various commercial, scientific and military underwater missions such as oil & gas, marine exploration, mine hunting etc. Mission triumph is augmented by the vehicles effective path tracking capability. In this work a 6 DOF mathematical model of an ROV is developed. Higher Order Sliding Mode Control technique is employed to develop the controller in order to reduce the chattering effects. The controller performance is evaluated by conducting simulations in Matlab/Simulink environment. It is shown using simulation that, a feedback controller based on higher-order sliding modes results in improved trajectory tracking, reduction in chattering and better transient performance when compared to the traditional fist-order sliding modes scheme.