Robust and decoupled cascaded control system of underwater robotic vehicle for stabilization and pipeline tracking

The current paper proposes a robust and decoupled cascaded control system with output feedback control for simultaneous stabilization and pipeline tracking of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) under hydrodynamic uncertainties. One of the ROV applications on the simultaneous stabilization and tracking was global output feedback with backstepping method on an ODIN ROV. However, the controller design becomes complex, as partial differential equations are required in the backstepping control law and the ROVs is inherently non-linear, highly coupled in motion, unsymmetrical in vehicle design, and vulnerable to hydrodynamic uncertainties. Compared with the backstepping control and other controllers, the computer simulation shows that the proposed method is simpler and performed better in time domain response and other performance measures such as robustness and stability.