Model Predictive Adaptive Constraint Tracking Control for Underwater Vehicles

In this article, in order to solve the trajectory tracking control problem with the drive saturation (thrust overrun) for the 4500-m human occupied vehicle named “Deep-sea Warrior,” a model predictive adaptive constraint control strategy is put forward. The proposed control strategy mainly consists of two controllers. The first part is a kinematics controller designed by quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization model predictive control method. The second part is a dynamic controller designed by an adaptive algorithm. In order to study the effect of the ocean current disturbance on tracking controller, the ocean current is incorporated into the kinematics and dynamics model of the 4500-m human occupied vehicle. The thrusts of four degrees of freedom under the ocean current are calculated from designed controllers. Then, the thrusts are assigned to six thrusters on the 4500-m human occupied vehicle according to its thruster arrangement. An ocean current observer based on artificial fish proportional-integral control is designed for unknown currents. The simulation results of tracking control in three-dimensional underwater environment are given, which illustrates that the proposed control strategy can not only meet the hardware requirements (drive saturation) but also achieve a stable and efficient tracking control performance because of its constraint to speed and speed increment, the effect of the ocean current on kinematics and dynamics models and the dual feedback mechanism.