Research on the hierarchical supervisory control of underwater glider

An underwater glider is a buoyancy-propelled and fixed-wing vehicle with attitude controlled completely by means of internal mass redistribution. In order to independently accomplish complex missions in unstructured and unknown oceanic environment, intelligence control system is needed to provide underwater glider with ability of active autonomy. Based on the RW (Ramadge & Wonham) supervisory control theory of discrete event dynamic system (DEDS), a three-level hierarchical supervisory control architecture for underwater glider is presented. The DEDS formalism models of underwater glider in term of finite state automata (FSA) are built, and the realization of the hierarchical supervisory control (HSC) system is brought forth in detail. The simulation result shows that the three-level supervisory control system can adapt to uncertainty undersea environment, and makes reasonable planning.