Robust optimal tracking control of multiple autonomous underwater vehicles subject to uncertain disturbances

Abstract This paper considers the problem of robust optimal tracking control of multiple autonomous underwater Vehicles (AUVs) subject to uncertain external disturbances. First, the Takagi‐Sugeno (T‐S) fuzzy based technique is utilized to convert the high‐order nonlinear multi‐AUV system into a series of linearized subsystems. Second, a novel fully distributed sliding mode control (FDSMC) strategy is proposed to attenuate the disturbances. Meanwhile, the leader‐following consensus and the nearly optimization of the energy‐cost function for the multi‐AUV system can be achieved simultaneously through the designed optimal nominal control protocol. Moreover, the proposed control strategy has more mild constraints on the communication topologies. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed FDSMC strategy is verified by numerical simulation studies.