Allocation Integrated Sliding Mode Control for Heading Autonomous Underwater Vehicles with Varying Speeds
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This paper addresses the challenge of robust heading control for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) operating under variable speed conditions, subject to system nonlinearities, parametric uncertainties, and actuator constraints. We propose a hierarchical control architecture that integrates Sliding Mode Control (SMC) with an optimization-based Control Allocation (CA) scheme. The outer-loop SMC guarantees robustness by computing the required total yaw moment to reject disturbances and track the reference heading. The inner-loop CA then optimally distributes this virtual control effort to individual actuators, explicitly accounting for saturation limits and speed-dependent actuator effectiveness. The performance of the proposed SMC-CA strategy is validated through comprehensive numerical simulations. Results indicate that the system maintains high tracking accuracy and stability across a wide speed range, demonstrating significantly faster transient response and superior disturbance rejection compared to a conventional PID controller in various scenarios, including step changes and abrupt speed variations.
DOI: 10.65154/ijmst.39
Authors: Khac Tiep Do, Van Tien Nguyen
Institution: Vietnam Maritime University
Language: English
Subfield: Ocean Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: Trường Đại học Hàng hải Việt Nam
OpenAlex ID: W7166646752