Design, Modeling, and MPC-Based Control of a Fully Vectored Propulsion Underwater Robot

This paper presents the design and implementation of a novel autonomous underwater robot with fully vectored propulsion based on model predictive control (MPC) to rapidly respond to the position and attitude required for autonomous operation. Specifically, the mechatronic design of the eight vector-distributed thruster layout for the robot’s fully vectored propulsion is detailed, and the software architecture based on the robot operating system (ROS) is constructed. Then, the corresponding dynamics model is established by adopting the Fossen approach for the prediction and optimization of the control process. To achieve autonomous control, an MPC-based controller is designed and implemented to calculate the control input for the specified control objective. Finally, way-point tracking and trajectory-tracking experiments are carried out in an indoor tank equipped with a motion-capture system to validate the feasibility and effectiveness of the robot’s design and control framework. In addition, the robustness of the robot system is verified by artificially perturbing the robot in the hovering state.