Output-feedback path-following control of underactuated AUVs via singular perturbation and interconnected-system technique

This paper focuses on the output-feedback control for path-following of underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles subject to multiple uncertainties and unmeasured velocities. First, a novel extended state observer is proposed to estimate the mismatched lumped disturbance and recover the unmeasured velocities. Based on this premise, to overcome the limitation of relying solely on the accurate kinematic model, a disturbance observer-based stabilizing controller is developed. The difference in bandwidths between the observer and the vehicle dynamics allows for a mathematical setup amenable to standard singular perturbation theory. In the fast mode, a kinematic observer is designed to reject system uncertainty caused by unknown attack angular velocity and prohibitive path-tangential angular velocity, using a novel physical perspective. In the slow mode, an interconnected-system control law is proposed by integrating the backstepping technique with the time scale decomposition method. Furthermore, the stability of the overall closed-loop system is established. Finally, simulation results are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for path-following of underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles in the vertical plane.