Time-varying exponential stabilization of the position and attitude of an underactuated autonomous underwater vehicle

The paper considers feedback stabilization of the position and attitude of an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with a reduced number of actuators. A nonlinear model describing both the dynamics and the kinematics of an AUV is studied. The paper shows that previous results on attitude stabilization of a spacecraft can be applied to exponentially stabilize both the position and attitude of an AUV using only four, possibly three, actuators. Simulation results are presented.