L1 adaptive pitch control of an autonomous underwater vehicle

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show the application of an L1 adaptive controller to control an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), considering realistic perturbations. Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, an L1 adaptive controller is proposed to control the pitch channel of an AUV, for the first time. Based on a six degree of freedom (6-DOF) nonlinear equations, an appropriate linear model considering real perturbations is derived for the pitch channel of AUV. Then L1 adaptive controller is applied on the model in the presence of the bounded disturbances and uncertainties. For this purpose, verified parameters of the REMUS AUV have been considered. Several simulations are performed in different operating conditions. Findings – The results confirm the quality of the proposed method in various situations. Furthermore, it is shown that the L1 adaptive controller is potential to contribute in practical applications of AUVs such as other autonomous systems. Originality/value – This is the first time that this method has been applied to an AUV.