Adaptive nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode control for the tracking control of underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles

This article proposes an adaptive nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode control scheme with piecewise fast multi-power reaching law for tracking control of underactuated autonomous underwater vehicles under model uncertainties, ocean disturbances, and measurement noise. This control approach enhances the robustness and guarantees faster convergence of state error to zero in finite time while reducing the chattering effect. Utilizing the benefit of adaption law prevents overestimating control parameters, and it eliminates the need for the upper bound value of disturbances. The overall stability of the system is analyzed using the Lyapunov criterion. The results of the proposed approach are compared with adaptive nonsingular terminal sliding mode control and adaptive sliding mode control. The performance of the proposed control approach is evaluated by using the performance indices root mean square error and chattering indicator. The simulation results confirm the efficiency of the proposed approach.