Modern Control for Underwater Intervention

While autonomous vehicles are used in industry for underwater exploration and inspection, when it comes to intervention, the state of the art are remotely operated vehicles. To reduce costs, autonomous underwater intervention has been subject of several research projects with a focus on kinematic control, while the coupled dynamics of the vehicle-manipulator system (UVMS) are largely disregarded. However, studies have shown the benefits of including the coupling effects between manipulator and vehicle in the dynamic control laws, e.g., reduced settling time and higher tracking accuracy. In this talk, the development of a coupled dynamic controller for UVMS is motivated. Model Predictive Control is presented as a suitable controller due to its ability to handle actuator limits and anticipate coupling forces before they appear.