Nonlinear Path Following Control of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles: Under-actuated and Fully-actuated Cases

This paper addresses the problem of nonlinear path following control of fully-actuated and under-actuated autonomous underwater vehicles. The similarity and difference of control designs on these two kinds of vehicles are analyzed, Where the sideslip angle is critical in dynamics evolving for both under-actuated and fully-actuated AUVs, which makes the difference in path following control design. As a result, the nonlinear controller for each type of AUV is proposed, and the inherent characteristics of under actuation and full actuation are revealed through numerical simulations.