Fuzzy Controller Design for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles Path Tracking

With the development of Science and Technology, underwater robots have been developed to support and replace people working in deep waters (seafloor), polluted water areas or when working for a long time underwater. Currently, underwater robots are widely used in military, engineering and marine research. In the military, underwater robots are used to install or search and remove torpedo, mines or cooperate with humans in water battle. Underwater robots are also important devices when rescuing shipwrecks on the seabed, etc. In order to perform such difficult tasks, Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) must have stable mechanical design and effective controller. In this paper, we will discuss Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) design and how to apply the Kalman filter into the FLC to control AUV to follow a path which is previously planned. In order to design FLC, first we must solve the dynamic problem. The dynamic model of vehicle is simulated in MATLAB/SIMULINK. It shows abilities to follow the path of AUV through position errors as e(1), e(2), e(3), all within the permissible range.