A Hybrid Autonomous Recovery Scheme for AUV Based Dubins Path and Non-Singular Terminal Sliding Mode Control Method

In order to improve the persistent operation capacity of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), autonomous recovery system draws more and more attention in recent years. A hybrid scheme combined with navigation, guidance and control is proposed to complete the function of autonomous recovery of AUV in the paper. Based on the hybrid scheme, the autonomous recovery is firstly transformed into the trajectory tracking problem, and the Dubins path planning method is adopted to build the three-dimensional(3D) motion path of AUV. Secondly, the virtual target guidance strategy is introduced to guide the AUV to track the desired path. Finally, a non-singular terminal sliding mode controller is designed to control the AUV. Due to the existence of model inaccuracy of AUV and external disturbances from the environment, a finite-time disturbance observer is adopted to estimate the disturbance and uncertainty in the system. Numerical simulation is conducted to verify its performance. The simulation results show that a 3D motion path can be planed and the AUV can track the motion path well.